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8 Corporations That Made a Fortune Leveraging Black Culture

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Timberland

At the end of the 198os, Timberland sales topped $156 million, 30 percent of which was solely of its classic yellow boot, popular among urban youth in the northeastern United States.

During the 1990s, sales of the brand took off at the same time U.S. hip-hop artists like Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, Jay Z, DMX  and many more wore the boots and rapped about them regularly.

After the rappers had fully influenced a generation of fans to wear the work boots, Timberland’s footwear accounted for more than 70 percent of its sales. By the end of 1992, the company’s sales topped $291 million and at the end of the decade, sales reached $917.2 million.

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