Dr. Martens’ continued growth into a fashion brand that encompasses clothing and accessories is part of a strategy that has also seen it build a stronger high street presence in recent years.

Following Triplar’s role in Dr. Martens’ award-winning pop-up store in London’s Spitalfields Market – which won the ‘Pop-up Store of the Year’ award at last year’s Retail Week Interiors Awards and was shortlisted for an NAS Design Partnership Award– and work on a permanent Leeds store, the business was a natural choice to help the iconic brand expand its high street presence.

The two companies share a Northamptonshire base and the brief was both challenging and interesting: to fit-out Dr. Martens’ three new stores in Spitalfields-London, Westfield Stratford City and at North West shopping destination Liverpool One.

The ‘look and feel’ of the new stores was set to embrace Dr. Martens’ new global retail design concept; showcasing both the brand’s A/W-11 footwear range as well as the latest clothing and accessories collections.

As the brand has evolved to encompass new ranges the store concept has also evolved. A new design concept inspired by Dr. Martens’ Soho store in New York and interpreted by retail design agency Design4Retail (D4R) was developed. Triplar then worked to turn their designs into furniture and fittings that were durable, flexible and stylish. All furniture was produced by Triplar’s specialist joinery team at the company’s Northamptonshire production facility before being fitted on-site by its shop fitting team.

Furniture items included shelving, racking, wooden display tables and a number of bespoke features such as wall displays crafted from shoe horns and bureau-style drawers transformed into display features for footwear.

Overall the store concept for all three outlets references the brand’s British manufacturing heritage and features elements such as exposed wooden floors and brick walls plus leather sofas in Dr. Martens classic ‘Oxblood’ tone .This is interspersed with modern technology including iPads mounted into leather-bound books that allow customers to browse drmartens.com. Contemporary wall niches highlight the brand’s key seasonal styles and each store houses a special ‘Made in England’ zone to showcase the products made in their Northamptonshire factory.

In addition, a show reel of films showing ‘The Art of Industrial Manufacture’ and an installation of original Dr. Martens shoe lasts creates a feature wall in each store. Exclusive bespoke wallpaper displays archive images of the surrounding area and vintage newspaper clippings from local newspapers dated 1st April 1960; the date the first pair of Dr. Martens 1460 8-eye boots were produced.

Triplar MD Tim Rodwell is proud of the company’s partnership approach to projects and said: “We have a great relationship with both Dr. Martens and D4R and this project’s success is testament to our strong links and desire to develop long-running partnerships with clients. “Both our production and shop fitting teams demonstrated terrific attention to detail in meeting the exacting standards that Dr. Martens’ brief and D4R’s designs required for these three stores. “In recent years we have worked on some exciting projects with Dr. Martens and had the privilege of working with the brand as it develops its product range and outlets. “We share deep Northamptonshire roots with the brand and we value this dimension of our relationship. These new stores underline the brand’s development into an exciting high street presence, and we’re delighted to be part of Dr. Martens’ continued expansion.”

Debbie Morgan, Dr Martens, said: “The partnership between Dr Martens and Triplar during our recent store openings has been excellent. I have been hugely impressed by how well the projects flowed, made possible through the high level of engagement, commitment and professionalism demonstrated by Triplar. “I felt I had the total support of the Triplar Team throughout, and they showed flexibility and a genuine regard for the customer. I would wholeheartedly recommend the Triplar team and look forward to working with them in the future.”