[5] When the war ended and Germans looted valuables from their own cities, Märtens purchased leather from a shoemaker's shop.

Funck was intrigued by the new shoe design, and the two went into business that year in Seeshaupt, Germany, using discarded rubber shaped by moulds.

[10] The first Dr. Martens boot in the UK with an eight-eyelet cherry-red coloured smooth leather design became known as style 1460 and are still in production today.

[8][12] Jane Schaffer, senior lecturer in footwear and accessories at the University of Northampton, says the classic range has "become iconic".

[3] In addition a number of shoe manufacturers in the Northamptonshire area and further afield produced the boots under licence, as long as they passed quality standards.

[3] By the later 1960s, skinheads started to wear them, "Docs" or "DMs" being the usual naming, and by the late 1970s, they were popular among scooter riders, punks, some new wave musicians, and members of other youth subcultures.

[13] In 1989, the Accent Group became the first manufacturer of Dr. Martens outside the UK, obtaining the rights to make them in Dunedin, New Zealand, which they did for several years.

In late November 1994, a six-storey Dr. Martens department store was opened in Covent Garden in London which also sold food, belts, and watches.

[18] In the 2000s, Dr. Martens were sold exclusively under the AirWair name in dozens of different styles, including conventional black shoes, sandals and steel-toed boots.

[20] On 1 April that year, under pressure from declining sales, the company ceased making shoes in the UK,[21] and moved all production to China and Thailand.

[24] Dr. Martens also began producing footwear again at the Cobbs Lane Factory in Wollaston, England in 2004 as part of the "Vintage" line, which the company advertises as being made to the original specifications.

[28] The private equity company Permira acquired R. Griggs Group Limited, the owner of the Dr. Martens brand, for £300 million in October 2013.

[32] In 2019, The Guardian reported concerns that the quality of Dr. Martens shoes had declined since either production was moved to Asia or Permira acquired the brand.

The company responded that there had been no change in the materials used or production processes since manufacturing was moved to Asia, and only 0.5% of its footwear was defective.

[36] Described by Lauren Cochrane of The Guardian as "fashion's subversive smash hit",[38] Dr. Martens have garnered significant following and ownership within various subcultures since the brand was established in England in 1960, including punk,[39] goth, Gen x,[38][40] LGBT,[41] grunge,[3] Britpop,[3] nu-metal and early emo.

[3] Notable customers of the brand have included Pete Townshend of the Who, who according to the BBC "became the first high-profile person to wear them, as a symbol of his own working-class pride and rebellious attitude",[3] Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Cure, Madness, Pope John Paul II, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna,[40] Madonna, Spice Girls, Avril Lavigne, Gwen Stefani[42] and the 14th Dalai Lama.