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Dr. Martens Pride Generations Puts Protest at the Centre of Pride
Dr. Martens launched Pride Generations in the United Kingdom in May 2022, a Prettybird-produced series of short films giving platform to active LGBTQIA+ voices through intergenerational conversation, with protest and community history at the centre of each episode.
Pride Generations marks Dr. Martens' first dedicated Pride campaign. Rather than producing a conventional seasonal advertisement, the brand commissioned a documentary-format series that frames Pride not as a celebration alone but as a continuation of political protest rooted in the 1969 Stonewall Riots. That framing is deliberate and historically grounded: Pride originated as a march to commemorate Stonewall, and the campaign draws a direct line between that origin and the grassroots activism represented by its subjects. The first film in the series, titled The Power of Protest in the LGBTQIA+ Community, features Lady Phyll — co-founder of London Black Pride — in conversation with Lucia Blayke, founder of London Trans+ Pride, as reported by adobo Magazine on 31 May 2022. Both figures established their own events as acts of protest against the mainstream Pride march, and the film explores what motivated those decisions, who inspired them, and what they hope their communities will inherit. Industry coverage of the campaign began on 1 June 2022 in Shots magazine. The series was planned to extend to a second episode titled Nightlife, featuring Kia LaBeija and Lee Soulja discussing ballroom culture, activism, and community history in New York, according to reporting by shots.net and Metal Magazine. Operating under Airwair International Ltd., as noted by encyclopedia.com, Dr. Martens plc — which became publicly listed in 2021, per Reuters — used Pride Generations to assert that protest has always been intrinsic to both the brand and to Pride itself. In the United Kingdom, where the campaign was published, the series positions Dr. Martens as a cultural ally rather than a commercial participant in LGBTQIA+ spaces.
Dr. Martens grounded Pride Generations in a specific strategic insight: that mainstream Pride events do not fully represent the full spectrum of the LGBTQIA+ community. The choice to centre Lady Phyll and Lucia Blayke — two founders who built alternative events specifically because mainstream Pride felt exclusionary — signals a brand position that privileges authenticity over visibility. Both London Black Pride and London Trans+ Pride were founded as protest movements, and the campaign frames that origin story as directly continuous with Dr. Martens' own heritage as a working-class, countercultural icon.
Narrative and casting for the campaign were handled by Amelia Abraham of Platform 13, a decision that reflects deliberate investment in editorial credibility. Rather than selecting talent for reach alone, the production sought subjects whose biographical stakes in the subject matter are verifiable and significant. In the United Kingdom, LGBTQIA+ advocacy organisations have consistently noted that Black and trans communities face compounding barriers within mainstream queer spaces, a context that gives the campaign's subject selection strategic as well as ethical weight. Dr. Martens operates in a crowded footwear market in which competitors including Nike and Vans have also produced Pride-adjacent campaigns, often at significantly larger media budgets. Pride Generations differentiates by opting for depth of narrative over breadth of reach, producing content that Shots magazine described as a shareable platform for some of the most active voices in the LGBTQIA+ community. The integrated campaign format, confirmed by the campaign's classification as an integrated medium production, allowed the film content to travel across owned, earned, and paid channels simultaneously, extending its reach without requiring a conventional media buy.
Jess Kohl directed Pride Generations for Prettybird UK. Kohl's approach to the series draws on the grammar of documentary filmmaking rather than advertising, allowing subjects to speak at length and in their own register rather than delivering brand-shaped soundbites. That formal choice is integral to the campaign's credibility: the conversations between Lady Phyll and Lucia Blayke in the first film, and between Kia LaBeija and Lee Soulja in the planned second episode, are structured as genuine intergenerational exchanges rather than scripted testimonials.
The production assembled a detailed creative and technical team. Directors of photography Alana Mejia Gonzalez and Sonja Tsypin shared cinematography duties across the series, with editing handled by Carla Luffe and Alexander Farah at Cabin Edit. Post-production was completed at Okay Studio, with colour grading by Ruth Wardell. Sound design was provided by Clearcut Sound and Wave Studios, London. Executive producer Juliette Larthe and head of production Fiona Bamford-Phillips oversaw production at Prettybird UK, with Benji Landman producing. The New York-based production company SEE ME Creative was brought in to support the second episode's production in that city. Narrative and casting responsibilities were assigned to Amelia Abraham of Platform 13, whose editorial background — she is a writer and editor with a track record covering LGBTQIA+ culture — shaped the conversational architecture of both films. The resulting aesthetic, noted in coverage by LBBonline and Metal Magazine, sits closer to portrait journalism than to conventional brand film, a quality that reinforces the campaign's stated commitment to giving subjects a genuine platform rather than a scripted one.
No verified performance data for Pride Generations is publicly available in terms of view counts, engagement rates, or commercial impact attributable to the campaign. No verified awards for Pride Generations have been found across Cannes Lions, the Effies, The One Show, D&AD, the Clios, the Webby Awards, or the WARC Awards.
Pride Generations receives a Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100. That score reflects the campaign's structural strengths — a clearly defined creative rationale, credible subject selection, and a documentary format that earns rather than manufactures authenticity — against limitations that include a narrow initial release of one publicly available film and an absence of measurable cultural or commercial outcomes in the public record. The decision to feature Lady Phyll and Lucia Blayke, two figures whose activism extends well beyond brand adjacency, insulates the campaign from the performative Pride criticism that has affected other footwear and fashion brands operating in the United Kingdom and globally. The integrated classification of the campaign suggests broader distribution was planned or achieved, but without verified reach or engagement data, the structural effectiveness of that distribution cannot be confirmed. What the campaign does demonstrate, as noted in coverage by Shots magazine and LBBonline, is a coherent point of view: that Pride is protest, and that Dr. Martens' role is to amplify the voices carrying that protest forward rather than to position itself at the centre of it.
Pride Generations is Dr. Martens' first dedicated Pride campaign, published in the United Kingdom in May 2022. Produced by Prettybird and directed by Jess Kohl, it is a series of short documentary-style films featuring intergenerational conversations between prominent LGBTQIA+ activists, with protest framed as the campaign's central theme.
The first film features Lady Phyll, co-founder of London Black Pride, in conversation with Lucia Blayke, founder of London Trans+ Pride. Both figures established their own events as acts of protest against the mainstream Pride march, and the film explores their motivations, inspirations, and hopes for their communities.
Jess Kohl directed Pride Generations for Prettybird UK. Kohl led a full production team that included directors of photography Alana Mejia Gonzalez and Sonja Tsypin, editors Carla Luffe and Alexander Farah, and executive producer Juliette Larthe, with narrative and casting handled by Amelia Abraham of Platform 13.
Pride Generations has no verified awards on record. No wins or shortlist entries have been confirmed across Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, the Effies, the Clios, the Webby Awards, or the WARC Awards. The campaign receives a Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100, reflecting its creative strength against limited public performance data.
Dr. Martens centred the campaign on London Black Pride and London Trans+ Pride because both organisations were founded as protest movements against the mainstream Pride march. That framing aligns with the brand's own countercultural identity and distinguishes Pride Generations from conventional seasonal Pride advertising by prioritising depth of narrative over broad visibility.
Pride Generations receives a Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's well-defined creative rationale and credible subject selection, offset by a limited public release footprint and the absence of verified commercial or cultural impact metrics in the publicly available record for this United Kingdom campaign.
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