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Have a pair of DM's as well, love them
Had some Blundstones back in the 90's that lasted years, bought pairs for me and other half a few years ago and the soles just disintegrated, came off in huge chunks, here's with minimal wear as well. Friend had similar experience.
My guess is that the solvents used back then worked better but fail elf and safety rules these days.
(Found a tin of 1990's Nitromors I'd forgotten about the other day, the good shit. Just waiting to use it in anger on an oak table top I picked up.)
I've been thinking of buying some DM's again. Used to live in them as a yoof in the 90's. Always had the black ones but this time gonna go for the cherry red ones!
So, the moral of this thread is that there are two versions, and the one to buy is the handmade in UK version. Is that right?
Edit: As a side-thread, I got weirdly into cobbler videos on Youtube, weirdly hypnotic and amazing to see the amount of work that goes into repairing shoes. There's a couple of American brothers called Trenton & Heath, and a suitably weird Japanese guy that I can't remember the name of.
The cool kids were wearing Converse All Stars 🤷♂️ back in the 70’s 🥺
they brush up quite nicely
Wonder if Alexei still wears them...
Happy memories of DMs - think I paid £40 for my eight hole ones, then went to German para boots like Klunk's ones for a while. DMs were pretty much unisex in the 90s.
spent hours with the felt tips inking the DK logo on mine
Dorling Kindersley?
Also: how about Monkey Boots? Similarly sackcloth 'n ashes in approach, hopelessly permeable, possibly made comfortable with footbeds. I'm wearing a pair now with some spare / rando Planet X footbeds. They're simple and not massively uncomfortable.
I bought some recently as a throwback to my youth and found the toe box to be tiny and the heel massive it was like pushing my foot into a traffic cone.
I lolled 😀
Blundstones back in the 90’s that lasted years, bought pairs for me and other half a few years ago and the soles just disintegrated, came off in huge chunks,
That was an issue that occurred when they initially moved production off-white. Supposed to be fixed now. DMs were notorious for the same problem a few years back.
There are models of the Blundstones that are leather-lined though. Same with Rossi and Redbacks. If Chelsea boots are your thing the you could do worse than the latter 2. Both made still in Oz, apparently.
Dorling Kindersley?
In case that was a serious question, the Dead Kennedys:
Nice and simple, like that for Crass.
The cool kids were wearing Converse All Stars 🤷♂️ back in the 70’s 🥺
I wear them now
Got 3 pairs of DM's on the go at the moment and I've always had a pair since the mid 70's.
Only buy the 'Made In England' range now, the cheaper ones are poor quality. Mrs Spursn17 has worn them for years and they look great on her, despite being an old bird now 😉😂
They are bloody artisan boots – essentially handmade in the UK!
Well , some of them are. The made in England ones are clearly made in England. But that's only 10% of the company's output and you have to search them out. They come with an extra £40 or so on the ticket price. Your bog standard DM is made in Taiwan. Whilst I quite liked the Gregg Wallace programme (apart from it having GW in it obvs) they nicely skirted around that - a good PR coup for Dr Martins. Every unthinking BBC watcher will have gone away from that programme thinking buying a pair of DMs would be supporting English craft workers. Mostly not.
That said, I can't imagine the process in Taiwan varies particularly in technique or quality from the setup in Wellingborough. Edit - though the post above clearly thinks there is a difference!
Same with Rossi and Redbacks. If Chelsea boots are your thing the you could do worse than the latter 2. Both made still in Oz, apparently.
Alas, Rossi are no longer exclusively made in Oz; I bought some hoping they were and sadly it turned out they weren't.