Dr Martens links with Beside Group for UAE entry, first LatAm stores open in Crosby deal

As it continues to fight back from a tough few years, on Thursday boot and shoe brand Dr Martens announced a new distribution partnership agreement with Beside Group in the UAE. It will mean the brand’s entry into the UAE for the first time. 

It comes after it earlier this year linked with Crosby in Latin America, with its first store in Santiago, Chile, having opened this week. It’s the brand’s second store in the region following an opening in Argentina in August.

The company said the partnerships “mark an important milestone in Dr Martens’ next phase of growth, as part of the strategic objective of curating market-right distribution and entering new growth markets with capital-light models”.

Beside Group is a major partner for international brands in the Middle East, with “significant experience in retail and wholesale, spanning several decades”. The deal between the two businesses will “launch and then grow the brand’s presence in the UAE, initially through wholesale, with monobranded store openings expected in the future”.

As for Crosby, it “partners with iconic international fashion and luxury brands, serving as their official distributor in Latin America”.

The link with Dr Martens will drive the latter’s reach in Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile and includes monobranded retail stores and wholesale. 

Dr Martens CEO Ije Nwokorie said: “These partnerships are consistent with our strategy of entering new growth markets to reach more consumers than ever before through a capital-light approach. We see enormous potential for Dr Martens in the UAE and Latin America and are delighted to have two partners who really understand both the depth and breadth of our iconic brand.”