Timberland: what character and what music. For half a century

“Our product was adopted by a consumer we didn’t know existed compared to the target audience.” Speaking like this, during an interview given to the New York Times in 1993, was Jeffrey Swartz, then executive vice president of Timberland, as well as nephew of the founder of the brand which at that time was spreading across the US hip hop scene with its model of tip, the Yellow Boot, actually born for the farmers of rainy New England.

father and son

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Since 2011 the brand has been part of Vf Corporation, has just concluded the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the iconic yellow boot and looks to the future with a reasonable certainty: the model born from the intuition of Nathan Swartz and his son Sidney Using injection molding technology and choosing silicone-infused nubuck leathers to create waterproof leather work boots has the path paved for at least another half century. The strength certainly lies in the product itself, but it is true at the same time that the sequence of famous people who have demonstrated their passion for the Yellow Boot has contributed significantly to making it timeless. Among the most recent examples is that of Pharrell Williams, eclectic creative director of the Louis Vuitton men’s collection who, on the sidelines of the Autumn-Winter 2024/25 fashion show, declared all his love for boots and also this is why I decided to celebrate them with a collaboration in which they are revisited with rows of Monograms in plain sight and even with a precious model with 18-karat gold eyelets, in turn placed in a personalized trunk.

star

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Even his predecessor at the helm of the French fashion house’s menswear, Virgil Abloh who passed away three years ago, had decided to customize them in neon shades. And another huge fan is Rihanna, who often and very willingly wears the Yellow Boot in everyday life, as well as on stage. After all, the link between Timberland and the world of music has decidedly deep roots, just think of when Tupac, considered by many to be the greatest rapper of all time, showed up at the 1993 Soul Train Music Awards with boots on his feet, true passion of another sacred monster of the genre, The Notorious BIG, who tragically became the victim, like Tupac himself, of a shooting. Las Vegas for Tupac, Los Angeles for Notorious BIG.

triplet

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Another trio of followers is made up of Jay Z, Chris Brown and Kanye West (the latter protagonist of two live shows in Italy in recent days, between Milan and Bologna), but the charm of the boot goes beyond the boundaries of rap and its surroundings . In 1986, for example, the Pet Shop Boys launched “Paninaro”, B side of the single “Suburbia”, with a video shot in Milan involving the paninari of the time who were all crazy about the Yellow Boot, while Axl Rose, on the stage of epic Use Your Illusion Tour of the nineties, he wore them often and willingly.

speaks j-ax

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And in Italy, who are the stars most devoted to the Yellow Boot? During the launch of the documentary directed by Tom Gould, “This is Not a Boot: The Story of an Icon” presented last year, J-Ax talked about how as a boy he traced the brand’s symbol tree in ink: “To let everyone know you had a pair of Timberlands on your feet.” A love shared with another big name in the sector, Guè.