Giving Plastic POS the Boot with Dr. Martens

Earlier this year, we were approached by our good friends at Syn Retail, a Leeds-based creative retail design agency, about an exciting project with a huge and well-known brand. Dr. Martens, the iconic British leather boot brand, have been giving themselves a little bit of a green refurb over the past few years, with the introduction of vegan leather and big sustainability goals, so of course, their in-store retail POS needed to reflect this. So, when they came to Syn Retail for their latest store project, our expertise in sustainable print made Imageco the obvious choice for the job.

Dr. Martens were looking for sustainable POS to kit out their brand new test and learn concept stores, the first of which being located on Carnaby Street in London. The brief from Dr. Martens incorporated the creation of a range of sustainable POS and interior decorations as they decided to move away from traditional PVC-based materials for their in-store displays. Dr. Martens had a clear vision for the design but were searching for the expertise in sustainable print needed to bring their concept to life.

The test and learn stores were a brand-new concept with the idea of bringing the factory floor to the shop floor to present the brand's latest Made in England collection. Dr. Martens had three key pillars for their collection: confidence, craft and quality. With the Carnaby Street concept store having a big feature on their ‘Made in England’ collection, working with British based partners was, of course, a big priority as well as the sustainability outlook, and we couldn’t have been more delighted to have been chosen for the job.

We used a range of sustainable materials from our green portfolio to create POS solutions for the store. One of which was Katz Display Board, a wood-pulp paper-based alternative to Foamex. The unique composition of Katz board makes it incredibly stable, all whilst being fully recyclable within normal wastepaper streams.

We also used Xanita board for some of the display pieces. Xanita is a 100% repulpable, engineered, closed-cell fibreboard which is manufactured with a partially recycled Kraft core. It is both lightweight and strong, meaning it is the ideal green solution for decorative applications.

As well as these two green products we also created PVC free window vinyl’s and all of the print products were printed using HP Latex ink technology.

Collaboration was at the heart of this project, with many teams involved in the creation of the store. Syn Retail created some smashing design work for the POS displays, which then came to us to print and put together using our knowledge on sustainable materials.

Within the Imageco team, we saw collaboration between the design, operations, finishing and print departments, before seeing a final effort on our side from our installation team who were down in London helping to put everything together and bring the initial vision to a reality.

The outcome was incredible to see after the big reveal. The store really rings true to the concept behind it and is a testament to the Dr. Martens brand. After talking through a wide range of materials with the Syn Retail and Dr. Martens teams it was clear to see that the correct choices had been made.

It was an absolute pleasure to have been a part of this project and it is great to see so many of the larger retail brands embracing a sustainable future.