Doc Marten was bought a while ago. The first thing to go was quality and durability. I believe the original company is making boots under the name Airware or something similar. I’ve heard they’re like the old DM quality and still hand stitched
LilaDinax on
Finding out the iconic yellow stitching is just decorative glue feels like late stage capitalism distilled.
gnumedia on
Also part of that observation-I thought that Frye boot heels were made from stacked, layered leather pieces. Until the puppy ripped off the thin veneer leather layer exposing a hollow white plastic shell.
Qimmosabe_Man on
I still have few semi-dress shirts from TH and Nautica that I bought back in 1999 (christmas sale at Macy’s). I don’t wear them a lot, but they’re still in good shape. Most new shirts I got over the past few years shed their buttons in few months, and side seam stitching start to fail.
Academic_Cook_4558 on
What a joke
Murkdonalds on
Im sick lol. I just ordered my wife another pair like 10 mins ago. I ruined her last pair because “I stepped on the heel” and ripped the sole off. Vindicated but doesn’t feel that way lmao.
MadamKitsune on
I wore DM’s for many years. Day after day in all weathers, wearing and walking about in them until the sole wore through. And then they changed hands and the quality plummeted to somewhere around the level of hell, with the sides and back splitting in a matter of months on the last couple of pairs.
They were expensive to buy, especially in my broke student days, but they more than made up for it in durability and longevity. These days you’ll get longer out of a cheap pair of Dr Marten-esque boots from a budget shoe shop and for a fraction of the price. And you won’t feel ripped off when they do fall apart.
omnipotentqueue on
The old ones were.
ShipwrightPNW on
Now thats dirty
half_a_skeleton on
Welted soles are very expensive.
Doc martens for their price point would never have a welted sole.
Minister_Garbitsch on
I have my old reliable concert pair, steel-toe, non-slip, would survive a nuclear holocaust. Took a small eternity to break in and all these years and years later my old ass can wear ‘em for hours in the pit and my feet feel great. Now if only they made back braces…
Jestermace1 on
The old bait and stitch.
leviathynx on
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
-Men at Arms
Khaiell-C on
Yup, did the same few years back. Wanted to relive my 90s doc’s glory. They stayed in tact but with in 2 months the soles were worn flat. Found out the name was sold off years earlier and it’s not the same product.
formerbays on
Everything is crap now😢
Ok_Exit9273 on
This better not be real…. That is a scam if so
BillyDW1978 on
Private equity at its finest!
Mixedthought on
This isn’t true for all DMs. You need to buy the ones that say they are Goodyear Welted.
Gabewalker0 on
Doc Martens are made in Asia now. NPS Solovair still makes the original boots with the same equipment and manufacturing process used to make Doc Martens.
Chrisfit on
Modern DM’s are terrible.
Elevat8edconfusion on
The fact that I paid the same amount for docs in 2003 and 2025 says the quality was sacrificed to achieve the same cost.
22 Comments
Betterhalf has had 3 pair like this. Modern crap.
Doc Marten was bought a while ago. The first thing to go was quality and durability. I believe the original company is making boots under the name Airware or something similar. I’ve heard they’re like the old DM quality and still hand stitched
Finding out the iconic yellow stitching is just decorative glue feels like late stage capitalism distilled.
Also part of that observation-I thought that Frye boot heels were made from stacked, layered leather pieces. Until the puppy ripped off the thin veneer leather layer exposing a hollow white plastic shell.
I still have few semi-dress shirts from TH and Nautica that I bought back in 1999 (christmas sale at Macy’s). I don’t wear them a lot, but they’re still in good shape. Most new shirts I got over the past few years shed their buttons in few months, and side seam stitching start to fail.
What a joke
Im sick lol. I just ordered my wife another pair like 10 mins ago. I ruined her last pair because “I stepped on the heel” and ripped the sole off. Vindicated but doesn’t feel that way lmao.
I wore DM’s for many years. Day after day in all weathers, wearing and walking about in them until the sole wore through. And then they changed hands and the quality plummeted to somewhere around the level of hell, with the sides and back splitting in a matter of months on the last couple of pairs.
They were expensive to buy, especially in my broke student days, but they more than made up for it in durability and longevity. These days you’ll get longer out of a cheap pair of Dr Marten-esque boots from a budget shoe shop and for a fraction of the price. And you won’t feel ripped off when they do fall apart.
The old ones were.
Now thats dirty
Welted soles are very expensive.
Doc martens for their price point would never have a welted sole.
I have my old reliable concert pair, steel-toe, non-slip, would survive a nuclear holocaust. Took a small eternity to break in and all these years and years later my old ass can wear ‘em for hours in the pit and my feet feel great. Now if only they made back braces…
The old bait and stitch.
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
-Men at Arms
Yup, did the same few years back. Wanted to relive my 90s doc’s glory. They stayed in tact but with in 2 months the soles were worn flat. Found out the name was sold off years earlier and it’s not the same product.
Everything is crap now😢
This better not be real…. That is a scam if so
Private equity at its finest!
This isn’t true for all DMs. You need to buy the ones that say they are Goodyear Welted.
Doc Martens are made in Asia now. NPS Solovair still makes the original boots with the same equipment and manufacturing process used to make Doc Martens.
Modern DM’s are terrible.
The fact that I paid the same amount for docs in 2003 and 2025 says the quality was sacrificed to achieve the same cost.