Just a few years later, in , the Abington Shoe Company was founded a few miles away in South Boston. Abington Shoe Company had been growing at a steady rate until the s, when Swartz developed a new approach to creating footwear. Swartz had been seeking a viable alternative to hand stitching boots, in order to lessen the cost and speed up the process, without compromising on quality. This search led him to injection-moulding, which utilised a new binding process to chemically mould and attach the base of footwear to the uppers.
This technological innovation led to the creation of the Timberland boot in , a fully waterproof leather boot, which pushed the company to new heights. Thanks to the success of the injection-moulding process, Nathan Swartz was able to retire in , with the company being taken over by one of his sons, Herman. It was Herman Swartz who developed the Timberland boot, renaming the company after the success of this product in The newly named Timberland Company increased its product line to include casual shoes, eventually expanding internationally.
The American manufacturer was in fact founded by Nathan Swartz in and has never been affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. In , the company was acquired by VF Corporation, an American worldwide apparel and footwear company founded in and headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina.
In other words, while you should stay away from fake Timberland boots , the racism rumors circulating online about the brand are not true. You can safely continue to buy Timberland shoes, such as a pair from the popular Susan G.
Komen collection at Amazon. Your Next Shoes. Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates from Your Next Shoes. And it changed the brand's identity. In , Abington Shoe used an innovative molding technique to produce a waterproof, 6-inch Nubuck leather boot that could withstand harsh weather.
The company called it the Timberland boot. So in , the company changed its name to Timberland, according to a article from The Boston Globe. By the late '80s, the boots' popularity was surging internationally. The New York Times reported that teens were robbing people for their Timberlands in fashion capital Milan and that American flight attendants were buying dozens of Timberlands to resell for double the price in Italy.
The boot was a favorite in places like the UK and Japan too. By , Timberland opened its second flagship store the first was in New Hampshire, where the company is based on New York's Upper East Side — peak real estate for pricey fashion brands.
New York City residents with a taste for quality and prestige began purchasing the boot en masse. But the customers weren't who Timberland had expected. Timberland's emergence in "urban" markets is treated like folklore. They had more money to go uptown or downtown to look at the more prestigious brands," John says.
According to Walker , young people in Harlem would travel to Midtown to purchase Timberland boots, which grew to have a signifier value in predominantly Black neighborhoods. At the same time, hip-hop was gaining traction in New York City and by the '90s was becoming more mainstream. Black artists were increasingly influential when it came to fashion trends.
Throughout the '90s, New York rappers adopted Timberland in their style and in their music: Biggie Smalls was photographed wearing the boots during performances, and rapped about "Timbs for my hooligans in Brooklyn" in his song "Hypnotize," while Nas wore them throughout his year career and rapped lyrics like "Suede Timbs on my feets makes my cipher complete" in his song "The World is Yours.
But while Timberland executives recognized that young, Black consumers had adopted their product, they did not immediately embrace it. Swartz went on to tell the Times that, while Black consumers' money "spends good," he was not going to "build his business on smoke.
The Times story reached Black readers across America, even prompting then-popular radio DJs like Wendy Williams to encourage Black consumers to boycott the brand.
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