Ever since Louis Vuitton unveiled its Fall/Winter 2024 collaboration with Timberland at Paris Fashion Week in January 2024, I’ve been penning fan fiction in my head about how this collaboration would have been received by New York rappers in the ’90s.
Like imagine if Timberland boots by Louis Vuitton hit the streets back when rappers like Biggie were photographed rolling dice in a good pair of Butters? I bet if Pharrell could have accessed a wormhole, he would have pulled a ’90s-era Smif-N-Wessun off the streets of Brooklyn to send them down that Paris Fashion Week runway rather than Clipse. Because let’s keep it 100, Tek-N-Steele really know what’s good: “Timbs and hood check, my crew’s out to catch wreck”
Enough with these hip-hop day dreams though! Pharrell being at Louis Vuitton, and crafting the most luxurious Timberland boots to ever touch concrete, is a dream actualized in itself. And at last, it seems like we finally have a date for when these LV Timbs are stomping down in Louis Vuitton stores.
Rumors are swirling that Louis Vuitton’s New York AF collaboration with Timberland is hitting stores on August 8. That’s perfect for all the real Timb steppers who hit pools and beaches with 6-inchs all summer. And a leaked image from what looks like a line sheet distributed by Louis Vuitton sales associates reveals that a “LV Boot Ranger Boot” will be priced at $2,990.
It’s worth noting that, though August is a plausible release date as the LV Timbs are part of Pharrell’s FW24 collection, this info is unconfirmed.
One details that’s giving us pause is the name of the style. What is a LV Boot Ranger Boot? While Louis Vuitton does sell boot styles with Ranger Boot within the name, it doesn’t really look similar to this specific Timberland x Louis Vuitton model. I believe a more accurate name for these super-tall Timbs is to dub them the LV Superboots or the Louis Vuitton “40 Belows.”
If you have no idea what 40 Belows are please refer to the blog musings of the late-Dallas Penn, the internet’s greatest Timberland stan. “For New Yorkers, and folks from D.C., Philly, and the East Coast, we remember this boot,” Penn shared in a 2010 YouTube video reviewing Alife’s take on the Superboot.
It’s true and the receipts are there. Timberland Superboots or 40 Belows were an iconic part of ’90s East Coast hip-hop style. Tupac famously wore a pair of these Superboots in 1992’s Juice.
The 40 Belows appeared in music videos by Das EFX and notably laced all the members of Ultramagnetic MCs on the 1992 album cover for Funk Your Head Up.
That’s why Louis Vuitton and Timberland’s 40 Belows are a masterpiece from this collaboration. While this is only one of eight styles of Timberland boots to drop with Louis Vuitton, and isn’t the style that comes inside a fancy case rumored to cost $75,000, it’s arguably one of the most classic Timberland boots to be reworked by LV.
A cutty, super big, Timberland boot silhouette that hasn’t been “Deadass B” meme-d to death like 6-inch yellow nubucks.
A good pair of Timbs for the hip-hop heads that know. So duck down and “Wreckonize” how ill it is that a classic totem of ’90s hip-hop style is being spotlighted with Pharrell at the helm of Louis Vuitton.
Like Smif-N-Wessun said, it’s really “Timbs all seasons for ass-kicking reasons.”