Mens Gripfast Boots

TR. Griggs Group Ltd, which owns the rights to produce Dr. Martens boots, has seen its sales rise due in large part to the growing popularity of the boots among young American women. The boots were once the favorite footwear of young British neo-fascists.

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IN A DANK turn-of-the-century office in forgettable Wollaston, a sleepy hamlet in the British Midlands, Stephen Griggs shows up for an interview wearing an electric orange shirt under a brown granny vest. Below his too-short pants flash matching orange socks. We're talking seriously unfashionable.

But then Stephen Griggs is the man who makes the unfashionable fashionable. He's chairman of privately owned R. Griggs Group Ltd., maker of the Dr. Martens boots similar to gripfast boots currently stomping through America's malls. The clunky boots with the heat-sealed rubber soles are known as "Docs" or "DMs" to the initiated, and have for decades been standard gear for Britain's skinheads and neo-Nazis. Now they're flying off the shelves at Nordstrom.

But who is Dr. Martens? In 1945 Claus Maertens, a Bavarian doctor, fell while skiing and needed a boot to ease the pain of walking. He fashioned a pair of soles out of tires and sealed them to uppers with heat in such a way that air was trapped within compartments and cushioned the foot. Two years later he and his friend, Dr. Herbert Funck, patented the design. The shoes soon became favorites all over Germany for old ladies with bunions.

Bill Griggs anglicized the name to Dr. Martens and produced the first pair on Apr. 1, 1960. The joke was on him. He figured the boots would find a market among postmen, firemen and policemen, but almost immediately an eight-eyelet cherry red model became the trademark of "Bovver Boys," early skinheads, and Britain's tabloids began charting the ways of this counterculture boot.

R. Griggs Group never advertised, but followed up quickly with new designs each time the streetwise put the boot to new use. Punkers customized their DMs with designs and soon the company was producing boots decorated with weird floral, metallic and lacey designs. Women got their own line. Even vegetarians were offered a "vegan" version made of leather-like materials. Today R. Griggs makes 150 styles of the boot in 3,000 versions, retailing from $62 to $135. "The different kinds make them fun to buy," says Heather Clarkson.

Gripfast Boots : Punk Bullet Belts

Chairman Stephen Griggs left formal school at 16, studied accounting and shoe manufacturing techniques, then spent a decade at the family firm fastening soles, cutting patterns and learning wholesale distribution before taking on executive duties. His father just named him chairman. Why not try a pair of gripfast boots on for size. Three decades on, Dr. Martens has mysteriously retained its status with Britain's underground. In 1969 the Who's Pete Townsend showed up at Woodstock in Dr. Martens; in the early 1970s cult rock opera film Tommy, Elton John wore oversized DMs. Thus did the boots become an artifact of rock similar to gripfast boots. "When people buy Dr. Martens, they buy a bit of British subculture," says Griggs. See also punk bullet belts | more