Since Timberland was founded in 1952, the company’s boots have been embraced by fashion tribes of all stripes, from yacht club dads to hip-hop royalty to Opening Ceremony (this fall, we released our sixth collaboration with the brand). But by far the weirdest and most fascinating group to claim the boot as its own was the Paninari, Italy's homegrown youth subculture of the 1980s.
In Italian, the name Paninaro comes from the word for sandwich. And in the early 80s in Milan, American-style sandwich chains were the pinnacles of cool. Groups of teenagers hanging out inside them began cultivating a uniform as shiny and recognizable as the McDonalds logo: bright Moncler jackets, Timberland boots or boat shoes, Top Gun sunglasses, logo sweatshirts, motorcycles. A twist on the yuppie, the Paninaro embraced pop music, Reagan-esque politics, and consumerism. “It was this extravagant Italian fantasy of what America was,” Enrico Pirondi, a New York-based art director and the son of the CEO of Best Company, the most popular Paninaro sweatshirt brand, told me by phone.
Timberland boots, introduced to Italy in 1980, quickly took off after their distributor placed them on the feet of Ferarri pit crews. The Paninari picked them up because “We wanted to look like lumberjacks,” said Ramon Verdoia, a 40-something driving instructor who became a Paninaro at age 15 (and still considers himself one). “When we bought the boots we would immediately douse them in seal fat and put them in the oven to make them look worn, or even scrape them with knives and throw them against the walls,” he told me by phone via a translator.
Unlike punks, Deadheads, or almost any other youth culture of their era, the Paninari didn’t take drugs, preferring to perfect their physical appearances at gyms and tanning beds, according to Ramon. “Being a Paninaro is about having an obsession with one’s exterior and the joy of getting dressed,” said the blond who keeps his skin a caramel shade even in the dead of winter. “Nothing is left to chance. Every piece of an outfit is calculated to match and fit together, maniacally so.”
Above all, the Paninari were different from other youth movements in that they were wholly on board with consumerism. In the 1986 Pet Shop Boys video “Paninaro,” logos from everywhere from Emporio Armani to the Belgian fast food chain Quick appear. In this way, the Paninaro's love for mass marketing recalls the current iteration of youth culture, for whom Home Depot logos and Beyoncé songs can be edgy. Yet the Paninari are also different from today’s hipsters in that they were unironic: “It was considered cool and modern to eat burgers,” noted Enrico. "They took it seriously."
Given the Paninari's brand of pop-hedonism, the movement’s origins are surprisingly dark. According to Ramon, Paninari were born out of another culture obsessed with physical perfection: neo-fascists. The first Paninari of the 70s and early 80s were a gang of violent Milanese hoodlums who went around beating up communists, said Ramon. During that time, the fancy ski jackets and leather shoes they wore were more likely stolen from bourgeois kids than purchased in stores.
Eventually, though, as the movement gained steam outside of Milan, the rich kids the gangs had been beating up became the new faces. Soon, a
In Italian, the name Paninaro comes from the word for sandwich. And in the early 80s in Milan, American-style sandwich chains were the pinnacles of cool. Groups of teenagers hanging out inside them began cultivating a uniform as shiny and recognizable as the McDonalds logo: bright Moncler jackets, Timberland boots or boat shoes, Top Gun sunglasses, logo sweatshirts, motorcycles. A twist on the yuppie, the Paninaro embraced pop music, Reagan-esque politics, and consumerism. “It was this extravagant Italian fantasy of what America was,” Enrico Pirondi, a New York-based art director and the son of the CEO of Best Company, the most popular Paninaro sweatshirt brand, told me by phone.
Timberland boots, introduced to Italy in 1980, quickly took off after their distributor placed them on the feet of Ferarri pit crews. The Paninari picked them up because “We wanted to look like lumberjacks,” said Ramon Verdoia, a 40-something driving instructor who became a Paninaro at age 15 (and still considers himself one). “When we bought the boots we would immediately douse them in seal fat and put them in the oven to make them look worn, or even scrape them with knives and throw them against the walls,” he told me by phone via a translator.
Unlike punks, Deadheads, or almost any other youth culture of their era, the Paninari didn’t take drugs, preferring to perfect their physical appearances at gyms and tanning beds, according to Ramon. “Being a Paninaro is about having an obsession with one’s exterior and the joy of getting dressed,” said the blond who keeps his skin a caramel shade even in the dead of winter. “Nothing is left to chance. Every piece of an outfit is calculated to match and fit together, maniacally so.”
Above all, the Paninari were different from other youth movements in that they were wholly on board with consumerism. In the 1986 Pet Shop Boys video “Paninaro,” logos from everywhere from Emporio Armani to the Belgian fast food chain Quick appear. In this way, the Paninaro's love for mass marketing recalls the current iteration of youth culture, for whom Home Depot logos and Beyoncé songs can be edgy. Yet the Paninari are also different from today’s hipsters in that they were unironic: “It was considered cool and modern to eat burgers,” noted Enrico. "They took it seriously."
Given the Paninari's brand of pop-hedonism, the movement’s origins are surprisingly dark. According to Ramon, Paninari were born out of another culture obsessed with physical perfection: neo-fascists. The first Paninari of the 70s and early 80s were a gang of violent Milanese hoodlums who went around beating up communists, said Ramon. During that time, the fancy ski jackets and leather shoes they wore were more likely stolen from bourgeois kids than purchased in stores.
Eventually, though, as the movement gained steam outside of Milan, the rich kids the gangs had been beating up became the new faces. Soon, a