"You're with me, leather" or YWML as it is also known, is a phrase popular with sports website Deadspin, its readers and fellow sports bloggers, and has grown into an Internet phenomenon. The phrase gained widespread popularity after an anecdote was submitted to Deadspin on April 11, 2006, describing the use of the phrase as a pick-up line by ESPN anchor Chris Berman.
"You're with me, ____," with other words or phrases inserted in place of "leather," is often repeated in response to news stories involving Berman. The phrase is also often used without context as a non sequitur, snowclone or an inside joke.
Origin
In a post by Deadspin assistant editor Rick Chandler, a source (whom site editor Will Leitch called "a respected journalist") claimed that in the mid-1990s, a friend of his was flirting in a bar with an attractive woman wearing leather pants and holding a leather jacket. However, his efforts proved unsuccessful when Berman, who was in Scottsdale, Arizona to cover baseball spring training, walked by and told the woman "You're with me, leather." The woman immediately got up and left the bar with Berman.
During the 2006 NFL Draft, fan Aaron Ghitelman asked Berman whether he had ever visited Deadspin. Berman reportedly told the fan, "Why would I go and do that? That is such a stupid question. What are you, stupid? That is so stupid."
In 2007, Berman said of the phrase and its popularity, "A lot of people are very mean-spirited, apparently. You're talking about something that happened nine years ago, some people want to dump on a guy that's been pretty nice to people for 27 years."