02 Aug Timberland Boot Marketing, Trendsetting, and a Brand Enthusiast Tribute

When I was in High School in the late 80’s and very early 90’s, I was hard on shoes ( I still am).  In Oklahoma, I believe that I was one of the first to start a small town trend of wearing work boots to school.  I was not doing it for fashion… but more so, because Timberland type boots would last… and especially compared to the latest Reebok and Nike crazes going on.

So when I got to college and saw the big city kids wearing them, (most of who had never stepped foot on a fishing bank or hunted or threw hay bales as I had done), then they were old news to me.

But in 1992, I can remember buying a couple of pairs of Tims.  One pair has stuck with me until this past week, when I have officially retired them.

Here is a list of some of the things I have done in my boots, in my final tribute…. May they rest in the Sanitation  incinerator with glory

• When I first got my Timberland boots in college, these boots walked me into some campus parties.  As a Freshman at Morehouse college, we could not have cars… so yes, here in Atlanta, GA, they walked me to and from Marta, where we would jump on buses and trains to go to Lenox Mall, Underground Atlanta, and other Atlanta Landmarks.

As my boots aged, so came their fashion replacements.  But in the coming years, these boots would be used functionally to power:

• Campus moveouts during summer breaks.
• Apartment move-ins as my friends moved into their first apartments from the dorms.

After college, they became a friend of mine during the 1996 Summer Olympics, when I was peddling Coca Cola in nearly 100 degree weather in Centennial Park.

On trips home to Oklahoma, they would accompany me where I would go on Rabbit hunting trips with my dad.  Yep… they have walked miles in Northeastern Oklahoma briars, as we stomped out rabbits and excitedly shot off a few rounds for a tasty dinner.

Oh, and don’t forget Georgia hunting trips, where somewhere around 1999, I bought a Chevy SUV and would go way out east past Social Circle, GA and get in those trees.  I knocked down a 10pt 170 pound young buck, and drug him out of the woods on foot in those same boots.  That was really a tiring experience.  Anyone have an ATV?

Fast forward a few years, when my wife and I got our first house.  During that time, we did the famous Apartment living and it seems like for a few years, we unhappily moved a few times to accommodate growing family, likes, and the famous needs vs wants!  Those boots lifted many a mattress and sofa into and out of a Uhaul truck.

Finally, moving into my house, these boots have mowed the lawn for 9 years straight, as often as twice a week in growing season.  How many miles has that been?  They have raked the leaves, chain sawed trees, built a deck on the back of the house, painted, put down hard wood floors in the house, moved my grown son out of the house, worked on cars…. All over the past 9 years…

They have even accompanied my crazy tail up on the roof to put up Christmas lights!

And before I came back to corporate full time, my wife and I ran a real estate business and my Interactive Online business.  Yep, I walked in some houses that had swamps inside as well as outside.  Those boots walked me where my wife refused to walk…. they were a part of making dreams come true via housing…

Yep…. My boots were even there when my daughter got too “big” for her twin sized day bed in her early teens, and wanted a “loft” bed.  My boots were there when I was too cheap to buy the bed at IKEA and instead, looked at it, bought the wood and built it myself.  Oh, and they were there too when my sons wanted bunk beds too!

My boots have been there with me while I was updating websites… and as old faithfuls, have been near by with news of births and news of deaths.

They have been here consistently in my love of BBQing year round and of frying turkeys or fish in my outdoor fryers.  A couple of years ago, they were with me when I had to take the toilet up because in a rush to go to work, I accidentally flushed the toilet paper holder down the stool.  It got caught.  As you can see, the Timberlands were with me when I was taking a congratulatory, yet sarcastic squat in the yard to tick my neighbors off.

Did I mention changing flat tires, putting together TWO trampolines (the first one got stolen.  Don’t ask me how they pulled it off), and putting new chains and clutches on the kids’ go carts?

My wife and family have never understood the loyalty I have had to my good ole boots.  Personally, if it were not for the water coming into their soles, I would go another few years with ease.

So after nearly 19 years of hard work and labor, fun and passion, lawn grooming and construction, moving and BBQ’ing, I have decided to lay you guys on to rest.

So after all of this, my good shoe friends, I must say it is time to go. The holes in your soles, about 10 shoe lace changes, & severe ankle pronation wear forces me to finally let you go and with much sadness I do.

I am not 100% sure if I am a Brand Enthusiast of Timberland, or if my love affair with that pair of Timberland boots is what sparks my admiration.

As a kid, I can remember a pair of work boots that my dad had for years.  He never threw them away until they broke on the flexion point of the boot.  I can remember laughing at him when he had to throw them away.  I regret that and funny or not, will call him and let him know of my similar love.

I have to admit, I now have converted another “fashion” pair of boots to work boots.  They too are Timberlands.  But something deep down inside says to me that they won’t last the years that these did.

So as I gave my boots their final task, I mowed the lawn in them and put them on the back deck.  I took this picture of them and left them in that exact same place on the newly painted deck that I worked on in my New Tims. Since then, they have disappeared quietly, as I am sure, my wife knew to bury them to relieve me of the burden.

That same day as I painted the deck, I also changed the blade on my 10 year old mower (A TORO with a Briggs and Stratton that I bought used at a garage sale) .  Don’t worry, I will chat one day about Toro’s life long abilities and maybe even the pair of 18 year old Andis beard trimmers that I bought the same time as my Timberlands in college.

Bye bye boots…  thanks for your service, and for the memories!  Timberland, thank you for a good boot….