I just bought a pair of DMs in London and they are far more comfortable than the pair I bought 20 years ago that killed my feet. For that reason alone I’m happy with them. I got a pair with the padding around the rim, rather than the hard leather and they’re great.
An expert speaks …
Because there’s a YouTube channel for everything.
Rose Anvil is a channel that does boot teardowns.
I’m not generally a watcher of this channel, but for some reason YouTube serves it up to me now and again.
Here’s a search for their Doc Marten episodes.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rose+anvil+doc+martens
I can’t hear about Doc Martens without thinking of The Brews by NOFX.
No idea about the quality of the shoes.
Oi Oi!
I bought (well, my mum did) some in 1996.
8 hole, steel toes. Wore them at school, a boarding school that did shoe inspections to make sure your shoes were polished, so they were properly taken care of.
The left one cracked and made a hole next to my metatarsophalangeal joint (big toe / foot junction) and the right one shortly after. Just about a year after I got them. I was not impressed with the quality.
I then got some Catterpillar boots, which were much better, when I wore those out years later I wore my granfather’s WWII British Army hobnail boots. Now THOSE had quality.
A nail worked its way up into the left big toe area, and being young and somewhat punk, i just ignored it and eventually got an inverted callous on that toe. Could still dance and mosh and hike. Lost them in a house move, else I would still be wearing them, more than 24 years later.