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Sam Greenberg Vintage London


JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED….A PAIR OF CLASSIC DM’S

Klaus Märtens was a doctor in the German army during World War II. While on leave in 1945, he injured his ankle while skiing in the Bavarian Alps. He found that his standard-issue army boots were too uncomfortable on his injured foot. While recuperating, he designed improvements to the boots, with soft leather and air-padded soles. When the war ended and some Germans looted valuables from their own cities, Märtens took leather from a cobbler’s shop. With that leather he made himself a pair of boots with air-cushioned soles.
Märtens did not have much success selling his shoes until he met up with an old university friend, Dr. Herbert Funck, in Munich in 1947. Funck was intrigued by the new shoe design, and the two went into business that year in Seeshaupt, Germany, using discarded rubber from Luftwaffe airfields. The comfortable and durable soles were a big hit with housewives, with 80% of sales in the first decade going to women over the age of 40.
Sales had grown so much by 1952 that they opened a factory in Munich. In 1959, the company had grown large enough that Märtens and Funck looked at marketing the footwear internationally. Almost immediately, British shoe manufacturer R. Griggs Group Ltd. bought patent rights to manufacture the shoes in the United Kingdom. Griggs anglicized the name, slightly re-shaped the heel to make them fit better, added the trademark yellow stitching, and trademarked the soles as AirWair.
The first Dr. Martens boots in the United Kingdom came out on 1 April 1960 (known as style 1460 and still in production today), with an eight-eyelet Ox Blood Smooth leather design. Originally Dr. Martens were made in their Cobbs Lane factory (which is still working today). In addition, a number of shoe manufacturers in the Northamptonshire area also produced DM’s under license, as long as they passed quality standards. They were popular among workers such as postmen, police officers and factory workers. By the early 1970s, skinheads started wearing them, and by the late 1980s, they were popular among punks, some New Wave musicians, and members of other youth subcultures.
Now DM’s are back. The new collection are now made in China only select pairs are made in Britain. Thankfully the traditional boots that you know and love are stamped, made in England. Thank goodness for vintage….


Sam Greenberg’s history is truly vintage itself. Sam’s father Benjamin arrived in London at the turn of the 20th century. A tailor in Warsaw, he arrived with nothing & began selling secondhand clothing from a stall in Petticoat Lane market in the East End. From a young boy, Sam worked alongside his father, growing the business into a 'rag yard', wholesaling used clothing. In 1935 he opened a shop selling men’s secondhand tailored clothing in the East End’s Cable Street, above which the family lived. After closing in 1951, he concentrated on wholesale, supplying other shops and markets with quality secondhand clothing. Still family owned, Sam Greenberg Vintage has returned to retail in recent years, carrying on the proud tradition of selling direct to the public with a concession space in Topman, Oxford Circus & now ASOS Marketplace. For a tip-top quality, ever changing range of handpicked & carefully selected men's (& a bit of women's) vintage clothing & accessories, Sam's your man!
Contact us at samgreenbergvintage@live.co.uk

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