Tangled up in shoes (dr. martens)
This is our third footwear digital VP role in 3 weeks??? (after KEEN and Merrell). Maybe I’m building a DTC footwear playbook—or there’s just a leadership talent gap in shoe brand DTC. Either way, this one hits close to home: I wore Docs through my flannel high school days in PDX, where the brand’s U.S. HQ still sits.
Let’s get started on our new role as VP, Digital at Dr. Martens.[Permalink]
🤘Hey! Ho! Let’s go!
Economic snapshot: Dr. Martens finished FY24 with revenue of about £877M, roughly $1.1B, which was a 12% decline from the prior year. The real story is in the channel mix. Wholesale fell sharply, down 28% to £344M (~$403M), while DTC held steady and now makes up 61% of the business—around £533M (~$625M). Ecommerce alone is about half of that. The signal is clear: growth is coming from DTC, not wholesale.
And clearly, we can see why. The site is strong. It’s not cookie‑cutter; the brand essence comes through immediately. Navigation is clear, PDP structure is logical, and DTC table stakes like free shipping are clear. And you can tell the site was not built in a DTC silo - they link to 3P retail locations.
The opportunity here: strengthen the DTC value prop and fix checkout:
📏 Fix sizing. EU base, clunky U.S. conversion. If I wear 8.5 US don’t make me guess between 8 or 9 or tell me cross reference a table. Sell me 8.5, ship me 42. Reduce friction, improve conversion, meet your customers where they are. It’s part of being a global brand.
♻️ Flaunt recommerce. Recommerce is unique, especially for footwear. Lead with it—it’s sustainability, community, and selection in one.
🤩Add non‑price perks. Prices must match retail in good omnichannel strategy, and Docs DTC does that. Now give me reasons to buy from the brand: maybe free laces (high margin, high delight), DTC‑only models, loyalty benefits (early release, recommerce selection). Some of these may already exist -if they do, they are buried.
🛍️Fix Checkout. Feeling nostalgic, while writing this I bought my first pair of Docs since college. There was no clear call-to-action to checkout after 'ad-to-cart' - I was actually confused about whether I had added it to the cart. I had to hunt for the cart icon. Second: I'm already a fan (albeit lapsed) - so make it easy for me to create an account as part of checkout - I actually wanted to! But was forced to checkout as a guest, and advised to return later to create an account. News flash: I didn’t. As Mitch Hedberg said, “end of transaction.”
The bigger picture: These aren’t cosmetic tweaks or tactical updates. They’re growth levers: localized sizing, DTC value-ads, and fixing checkout. And there’s some heavy operational lifting with functionality like expedited shipping, free returns, recommerce and and global content management. Flawless execution here will ensure these features pay off in revenue growth and customer experience.
Tl;dr. Docs are already iconic. Now it’s about making the digital journey just as legendary.
And for me, this one’s personal.
