Keith Haring’s instantly recognizable art is coming to a shoe near you. In collaboration with the artist’s estate, British footwear brand Dr. Martens has unveiled a new line featuring a selection of Haring’s famous illustrations. The line, available in select stores and on the Dr. Martens site later this month, includes the classic 1460 boot (as well as a children’s version) and the 1461 boot.
Haring first gained notice in 1980s New York for his stylish street art that addressed topics as varied as Apartheid, the crack epidemic and, most famously, the AIDS crisis. (In 1990, he died of AIDS-related causes.) Among his most iconic figures is the “radiant baby,” featuring a simple outline of a human on all fours intended to symbolize innocence.
“I am intrigued with the shapes people choose as their symbols to create language.” Haring once said. “There is within all forms a basic structure, an indication of the entire object with a minimum of lines, that becomes a symbol.”
He made an effort to widely disseminate his work, taking on public art commissions—including on a section of the Berlin Wall—and setting up a shop for prints and t-shirts. His efforts invited accusations of “selling out,” but Haring was undeterred.
The Dr. Martens line will bear some of Haring’s most beloved motifs, such as an angel with its wings outstretched and a barking dog. A black-and-white image of interlocked, genderless people decorates the brand’s classic oxford.
Earlier this year, Dr. Martens unveiled a collaboration with the Basquiat estate. Products in the line were decorated with Basquiat’s skull and crown imagery, as well as elements from the album cover for the original pressing of Rammellzee’s “Beat Bop,” which Basquiat created in 1983.