About

Timbs is a shorthand for Timberlands, referring to a brand of tan, waterproof leather boots produced by The Timberland Company. Online, the boots are often associated with New York City hip hop fashion.

Origin

On January 13th, 2016, Redditor realSpoops submitted a photograph of a Timberland boot USB flash drive with the caption "New York rappers save their music on these type of USB's" to /r/BlackPeopleTwitter^[6] (shown below).

Spread

On April 5th, 2016, YouTuber FilthyFrank posted a comedy skit video titled "Loser Reads Hater Comments 4," in which he orders a man to give him his "timbs" at gunpoint (shown below). Within five months, the video gained over 5.7 million views and 48,300 comments.

On May 25th, 2016, Twitter user @ChiTown_Eazy^[4] tweeted photographs of a man wearing Timberland boots with holes cut into the sides and the toe cap removed (shown below, left). That day, the image was reposted to the /r/BlackPeopleTwitter^[5] subreddit with the caption "Timbs Season," garnering more than 4,200 votes (94% upvoted) and 40 comments in three months. On June 25th, Redditor SupremeBlackGuy submitted a photograph of professional basketball player Derrick Rose on a sidewalk in New York City with the caption "Derrick Rose showed up in NY without Timbs. Strike 1" (shown below, right). Within two months, the post gathered upwards of 2,500 votes (01% upvoted) and 60 comments on /r/BlackPeopleTwitter.^[1]

On August 14th, the Family Friendly Memes For The Dankest Of The Tweens Facebook page posted a children's book cover with a Timberland book photoshopped on the front (shown below, left).^[8] On August 31st, the Keeper of the Memes Facebook page posted a screenshot from a dress-up video game featuring a pair of Timblerlands (shown below, right).^[7]

On September 5th, the no_chillbruh Instagram feed posted a video of a woman repeatedly who becomes enamored with a man wearing Timberlands after being repeatedly catcalled while walking down a sidewalk in New York City (shown below). Within two weeks, the video gained over 146,000 views and 540 comments.

On September 14th, a Facebook page titled "Haha yeah dude I love memes" posted a photoshopped screen capture of a CNN news segment with the caption "NASA Finds a Fresh Pair of Timbs" (shown below, left).^[2] On September 17th, the Organically Grown Memes Facebook page posted an illustration of a figure wearing Timberlands on his hands with the caption "You can't just put timbs on everything" (shown below, right).^[3]

Search Interest

External References