Dr Martens boots aren’t cheap, and nor are the shares in today’s IPO

In the words of Alexei Sayle: “Dr Martens, Dr Martens, Dr Martens Boots. Wallop.”

There was plenty of wallop in today’s IPO of the punk-turned-private schoolgirl brand. The shares, priced at the top of the expected range, surged 16% on their first day of conditional trading to nearly £4 billion.

Anarchist Alexei would be horrified, but, when full trading starts next week, should you be buying?

Doc Martens have certainly staged a dramatic turnaround under private equity group Permira’s ownership. From being a pretty basic UK operator which nearly went bust, it’s now a decent sized global brand.

The thing is, for all its talk of selling 20% of its stuff online, it’s still, basically, a shoe company.

That marks it apart from the blockbuster tech floats such as The Hut Group, or the hotly anticipated Deliveroo, which offer exponential scale-up potential.

Doc Martens’s revenues gained an impressive 18% in the last six months, but THG just did 51%.

Completely different businesses, sure, but you see the point.

At 430p, where Doc Martens’s shares settled today, the company’s valued at nearly 19 times future earnings. According to Finbox, that’s not far behind marketing titan Nike.

Not that DM is a sell. It has a great brand. Still only shifting 11 million pairs a year, its high-teens sales growth is sustainable. And with fans prepared to pay its eyewatering prices, that means margins of nearly 30%.

It’s just that, at £4bn, it’s worth exercising caution before lacing up to buy.