Dr Martens names McCoy as global creative director

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 30, 2022

Dr Martens has a new global creative director with the appointment of Darren McCoy — or DMac — to the helm of the design team at the heritage-meets-fashion footwear brand.

It’s an interesting time for him to take over with the company still relatively new to the stock exchange, its recent results showing strong sales and profits, and current trends being all about the heavy, functional footwear at which it excels.

The company said that he’s “part custodian. Part innovator” and that “Darren, like almost everyone in the DM’s family is a life-long Docs wearer” who “believes in putting the history and heritage” of the label first

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He's actually been in the role for a few months prior to this official announcement and while Dr Martens didn’t share McCoy’s CV, his LinkedIn profile says that he's been with the company for seven years and was previously global category product director. Before that he was global category manager footwear. 

And previous roles included three years spent at Asics Europe on the Asics Tiger and Onitsuka Tiger brands, as well as being product manager EMEA at The North Face for VF Corporation until a decade ago. Before that he was global product manager at Adidas Originals and also previously spent two years as product manager at Mamas and Paps. 

McCoy said that in his new role he’ll “continue to innovate and tell the brand story through the way we create, the processes we adopt and the way we interact with our wearers. But we’ll always pay homage and respect to the heritage and history of the brand.” 

He added that “taking on this new role has been quite a seamless transition because we have such talented designers and creatives. My responsibility, and it’s a massive responsibility, is to continue the custodian mindset that has got us to where we are today. It’s truly an honour to be in this position and be surrounded by like-minded people who have a personal connection to Docs.”

Adam Meek, chief product officer, who’s also relatively new in his role as he joined last November from Canada Goose, said: “As Darren and I both settle into our new roles, it’s clear that he’s been instrumental in inspiring our product strategy. Darren has led from the front to reinforce our iconic, original product whilst inspiring innovation that always touches on our heritage — and importantly creating footwear that remains tough and durable. Protecting our feet and our brand.”