Dr Martens launches unique items using deadstock

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 16, 2023

Friday will see the launch of a new Dr Martens collection that’s all about minimising production waste and creating unique footwear.

The shoe brand is launching a Made In England Deadstock collection, finding “new ways to use surplus materials to create waste-defying shoes and boots. This deep respect for materials gives each wearer a unique pair". 

The new, ongoing collection combines various types of leather from a range of seasonal stock and tanneries. 

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The handcraft and leather specialists at DM’s Northamptonshire factory “use their expertise to combine surplus stock and still construct boots and shoes of the highest quality”.

The 8-eye 1460 boot is reworked with various types of leather, including Desert Oasis suede, Classic Oiled Shoulder and Wax Commander from UK-based CF Stead, and Dublin leather from Horween in Chicago.

Meanwhile, the 3-eye 1461 shoe is a union of contrast base Quillon leather with soft Desert Oasis Suede and classic Split Suede from CF Stead.

The company said that by using leathers from different sources and areas of the cowhide, it gets maximum use and minimal waste. 

And it’s making the origin of the styles very visible. Through exaggerated stitching, colour variation, unfinished edges and mismatched, hand-punched eyelets, “the Deadstock pack proudly displays its patchwork aesthetic and creates a different finish on every single boot and shoe,” it said.

As well as being “a testament to what can be done with what would go to waste”, it’s an evolution of the brand’s 2022 collaboration with Stockholm upcycling specialist Our Legacy.

The company has also created a campaign for which it worked with designer and furniture maker Lewis Kemmennoe and weaver Rosa Martin Rodriguez. “Using wood and leather scraps, they created the plinths and sculptural elements that feature in the campaign”.

And the waste minimising aspect continued with the whole thing being shot on expired 35mm film.