Why Are Doc Martens Popular: History, Guide (And Me, Breaking My Feet)

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Welcome (My Feet Already Hate Me!)

What’s up, Snailiens! Welcome! I have blisters the size of biscuits from these effing boots, and I can’t wait to get started.

I was driving around the other day while trying to find a good spot to test these boots out, and I saw something called the deserted village of Feltville.

Obviously, I had to check it out. It was very clearly not deserted, so they could just call this the village of Feltville. Anywho, let’s get to it.

The Ultimate Doc Martens Guide – Here’s What We’re Working With

Okay, so like the title of this article says, this is the ultimate Doc Marten boot guide. I have three boots with—well, two boots and one shoe.

I have the 1460s, which are the original Doc Marten boots, and then I have the 1461s, which are the Oxfords, but I got them in vegan leather, so we can talk about the difference between Doc Marten leather and their vegan offering.

And then, finally, I got a pair of Solovair monkey boots.

It’s a big battle between Solovair and Doc Marten Made in England quality. I think there’s a hands-down winner, so we’ll get into that, and I’ll tell you why all of your snobby friends say Doc Martens are horrible and Solovair is way better.

I forgot to mention there’s also something weird with the way they stitch the sole onto Doc Marten boots—it’s done in a way where you can repair the boot, but they make it exceedingly difficult, so we’ll talk about that, too.

Quick Comparison of the Boots

Let’s Talk About the Classic 1460s – The OG Doc Martens

So, first things first, we will go over the 1460s. If I say the word Doc Marten, you’re probably thinking of this boot, and people have a lot of, I guess, beef with Doc Martens because they used to be a lot better quality.

And then, when popularity went way, way down for Doc Martens, Doc Marten almost declared bankruptcy. Then, they went overseas and basically stayed afloat by doing that.

So now we have modern 1460s, which are not as good as they used to be.

These are, I believe,  $170, and you can get them on sale a lot. People don’t like the quality of the leather or the stitching or certain things like that, but I do think for the price of $170 or lower, if you get them on sale, there aren’t a lot of other boots in the ring that just smash it out of the park.

But the big point is that Doc Martens are a special boot because they’re so iconic that most people, I feel like, aren’t looking for just any leather Goodyear welted boot—they want Doc Martens.

So I think for the quality, I don’t really think you’re getting ripped off. I think you could get a little bit more for your money. We’ll get into Made in England and Solovair, like I said, and I’ll explain why there’s that big difference.

For the most part, I’m cool with them. If I—well, I did buy these boots, and I’m wearing them right now, I’m not disappointed with the price that I paid for them. So, right off the bat, I think you’ll be okay.

The Truth About Doc Martens Leather – My Friend Marcus Has Opinions

The biggest thing about these leather boots is obviously the leather, and my friend Marcus came over recently and saw my boots and said, “These don’t… um… these don’t feel like they’re made of leather,” and I said, “Well, they are Marcus, so shut the hell up!”

They are made of leather. The only thing is that this is like a medium-weight leather. It’s stiff, though, because there’s so much finish on the outside, and there’s so much finish because this leather isn’t really expensive.

The more expensive leather you get is flawless—there are not a lot of scars or nicks on the leather.

This leather does nick and scar, but what Doc Marten does is they have a finish that they put over it. The reason that it is not that good is because that means the boots don’t age as well.

Actually, something that I noticed while writing this is that there’s bubbling going on with mine.

Interestingly enough, the bubbling went away, but I also walked in the water with these boots and got them all wet. I don’t know if that fixed it.

Either way, I would definitely return that if I wasn’t doing this review, but that’s not a good thing. But anyway, that’s because the finish separates from the leather over time and starts to flake off when just full grain leather with no finish or very, very, very light finish ages better and looks prettier for longer.

This will be interesting because that kind of ties into the fact that it’s really tough to resole Doc Marten boots. The interesting thing, though, with this leather is that people are always worried it’s going to look really bad.

Even though there’s a finish on these boots, I haven’t really seen—and I looked, I scoured all over the internet—I haven’t seen trashed Doc Martens to a point… well, besides my friend Artemis’s boots, actually.

They messed them up. I don’t know how they did that, but those look horrible, and you see the flaking off. That is the top coat that I’m talking about.

But for the most part, for a pair of regular black 1460s, I can’t really find really, really crazy trashed boots on Google, on Reddit, or anything like that.

So, I don’t really think aging is a huge issue. The only issue is if there is cracking on the top coat, which can happen, it’s basically impossible to repair. So they’re just going to look like that, and that’s what people don’t like a lot, and they bubble.

The Weird Thing About Doc Martens Repairs – Car Tire Analogy Time!

Now, this is a really big reason as to why a lot of boot nerds hate Doc Martens. I’ll explain this—it will come in handy later. It’s very, very important to the value of these boots.

Picture a car, and the car has tires on it. Usually, when the tires run out, you can pop the tires off, put new ones on, and the car’s good to go.

The way Doc Marten does it essentially is if the tires wear down, you kind of have to take the whole engine out of the car and like save it a little bit, but like part of it’s ruined, and then you have to put it back in, and then you find out like Toyota’s like, “Oh by the way, you can’t get the good tires for this car anymore because those are ours—we won’t sell those to you.”

They stitch the welt to the upper, and then they heat seal that PVC welt to the sole, so they melt the welt to the sole so it becomes one piece of rubber or rubber plastic—whatever I said—which is great, it’s fused together, it won’t separate, that’s awesome.

However, when you want to replace the actual sole of the boot, you have to pull the entire sole off and the welt, and the welt’s gone, which isn’t that big of a deal, but what is interesting is Doc Marten doesn’t let you get these AirWair soles.

You just can’t get them, so you have to put a different sole on. So then you have the Doc Marten upper but a different sole—it looks a little different. Boot nerds hate that.

The Vegan 1461s – My Feet’s Worst Enemy

Part two: the vegan 1461s, the Oxford shoes. I have worn plenty of boots, and I’ve reviewed plenty of boots even before I was even writing about clothes and stuff.

I break in wool jackets and stuff all the time, and it never bothers me. Doc Marten’s 1460s are not that bad to break in. 1461s broke me—they destroyed my tootsies.

The Doc Marten store is two and a half miles away from my apartment, so I walked there with my shoes on. I got there. The lady I talked to had a collection of over 100 Doc Martens, but I bought the 1461s, and she said, “Are you familiar with the Doc Marten break-in process?”

I said yes—I lied. The boots aren’t bad, as I said. I can walk forever in them. I haven’t broken in a lot of shoes. I probably got like a half mile, and then all of a sudden, I was like, “Um… I think I’m not okay.”

Huge blisters in the back, really gross. I was gonna show them to you, and then I was like, maybe that’s a weird thing to do, but it just absolutely destroyed my feet.

1461’s are Doc Marten’s slimmest Oxford. I really like them. We’ll get into the material more in-depth in a second. It is a vegan material, and it is a cheaper material to make shoes out of in general, but if you watch Rose Anvil’s video on YouTube, he basically shows that Doc Marten does make up for this because they don’t reduce the price.

It looks like they increase the quality of the materials on the soles, so you have a felted wool midsole. So it has a little nicer materials there—oh wait a minute, it can’t be felted wool because that’s not vegan.

It looks like the materials are better. Maybe they’re actually not. I’m not too sure. It looks like they beefed up the internals to justify the price a little bit more.

From a business standpoint, it’s probably more profitable to do that than lower the price, so they did do that. And I’ve heard mixed reports from people on the material itself—some people say they disintegrate in two weeks, and other people are like, “I’ve had mine for seven years, and they’re perfect.”

Surprise Water Test! – These Boots Are Actually Pretty Waterproof

The thing that people do generally like is that they’re a bit better in the water because they’re not leather, but the only thing I have about that—I haven’t tried mine in the water.

Interjection: I just did a waterproof test, and these Doc Marten boots are actually dramatically more water-resistant than I thought.

So, the plastic ones technically would be better in the water because leather does get a little bit softer when it’s wet, but plastic won’t.

Much to my delight, these boots were fantastic in the water. I’ll be honest: I love doing the waterproof tests, but it is just a lot of me standing there so It’s weird to write about.

So here’s the end—they stay dry the entire time, they’re amazing.

Vegan vs. Leather – The Real Talk

Okay, so if you’re trying to decide whether you should get the vegan, aka plastic ones or the leather ones, I’m not gonna hate on the vegan ones at all, but the only reason I think you should get them is if you are vegan because then obviously you can get Doc Martens.

Otherwise, I just think the leather has a better hand feel. I do think the plastic ones are probably a little bit better in snow and slush and rain over time, but there is such a heavy top coat on the leather ones, too, that it’s probably a marginal difference. It’s probably not a lot because the 1460s do have that top coat.

And the other thing I thought was once the plastic starts to go, it’s kind of gone, it’s ruined, you can’t really repair it at all. But then I thought with the leather ones, that heavy top coat flakes off, and there’s nothing you can really do there either, so it’s kind of a draw.

And these boots aren’t really meant to be repaired or resold that often—you kind of just have to get new ones.

So they’re kind of at a draw besides the fact that leather feels better, and when you’re aging it, you know you’re aging leather like you’re seeing the creases in leather.

Otherwise, it’s kind of like bent plastic, and I feel like if it didn’t have the yellow stitching or the Doc Marten brand behind it, these would be like $20 shoes you find at TJ Maxx—like the $20 plastic shoes that don’t breathe that are kind of just gross.

So unless you’re vegan, I would get the leather daddies. That way, you could be a leather daddy.

The Missing Shank – Why Your Feet Get Tired

The only other thing before we get into Made in England Doc Martens and Solovair is that Doc Martens—all of them—do not have a shank.

So between the heel of your foot and the ball of your foot, sometimes on boots, there is a shank made of wood, metal, carbon fiber, whatever, and the point of that shank is basically to not have the boot bend as much—like sag down when you’re walking or standing.

And what that does is basically make your feet less tired throughout the day. So that’s actually a big thing if you’re getting these for comfort—maybe look at other options with the shank.

If you want comfort and style, we’ll talk about that in a second, but that will affect you a bit more over time. So Doc Martens are easier to break in from the start, but Solovairs are a bit tougher, but you’ll have more comfort down the line.

Mind-Blowing Opinion: Why You Should Skip Made in England

Okay, well, I’m about to blow your freaking mind! If someone said, “Hey Michael, I’m looking to get a pair of Doc Marten boots, my budget is unlimited, should I get the Made in England ones—which are made in England out of better materials, better leather, better interior materials and all that—or should I get the cheap 1460 stupid dumb ones like you have?” I would actually say get the stupid dumb ones.

The reason that I would suggest you get the plain Jane Doc Martens and not the Made in England ones is because, yes, you’ll get better leather. Yes, the quality of the midsoles will be better.

Still, I feel like what you’re paying for mostly—which is a third of the boot price added on to the Made in England versions—is the Made in England part, which is great, and that’s awesome because it’s obviously important, but if you’re going for pure value, stupid dumb ones all the way.

The Solovair Situation – Better Value But Not Perfect

So I love Solovair, I really do, and I’m sure I got a manufacturing defect, but I do want to say I’ve worn these boots eight times, and so far, a tab on the back is ripped off on the right boot, and my boot lace snapped.

So things are not looking good. I just reached out to them—I’m sure they’ll fix it, and I’m sure this is a manufacturing defect, but whoops!

Solovair boots are actually cheaper than Doc Marten Made in Englands. Real quick, let’s go over why. Doc Martens, like I said, the Made in England’s better leather, so that’ll age fine—that’s probably on par with Solovair’s.

There are better midsoles—that’s probably also on par with Solovair. With Solovair, though, it’s also a much smaller company. They’re one of the original makers of the original Doc Martens. Their boots have a shank in them, so they’re a bit more comfortable over long periods of time, and they’re Goodyear welted in a more regularly accepted way, so they’re easier to resole.

The leather being nicer means that you can resole them and use them a lot more, and they’ll age cool, and if you get the Derby eight-eyed boot, it’s essentially the exact same boot as Doc Martens. So they’re cheaper, better quality, better features—Papa John’s, better ingredients, better pizza—and it’s from the original maker of the boot so you’re not really getting a different boot.

The only thing that they don’t do is the yellow stitching, so if the yellow stitching is a big deal, then you kind of have to get the Made in England Doc Martens if you want to get the highest quality, but if it’s not, I really suggest you go to Solovair, check them out, see what they have. I am not sponsored by either of these people—I would love to be!

Watch This Review

Final Thoughts from the Haunted Village

I’m just gonna sit here in the deserted village of Feltville until all the monsters come out and chase the residents away. Anyways, though, that is about it. Thanks for reading, and I’ll talk to you all soon!

This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here.

The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered.