Archive for 2011
SHAPE’s Ali Sunshine Shares Her Mount Holly Love
Whether you’re gearing up to brave the elements or just the Black Friday shopping crowds, you’ll want the right footwear for the job.
SHAPE magazine’s resident trendSHAPEr Ali Sunshine visited our Herald Square (New York) store recently to check out the Earthkeepers Mount Holly boot. Hear for yourself from Ali and our women’s category director Vanessa about what makes the Mount Holly beautiful and rugged, as well as eco-conscious:
You can shop for the Mount Holly boot and other great Earthkeeper products on our website.
And the Winner is …
The results from our Girlfriend Getaway Sweepstakes are in! Congratulations to Charisse, who will be packing her bags and heading to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival with 3 friends, courtesy of Timberland.
Charisse’s winning photo — in which she and a girlfriend are showing off their best “mountain style,” was selected based on its creativity and originality, and for the strength of the message she included with her photo entry. See for yourself:
Aimee and I have traveled the world as volunteers and backpackers. We’re proud to support a company that is committed to protecting the environment and world while maintaining quality products. Timberland’s products cultivate a passion for the outdoors and give us the comfort to create our adventures in style. Please choose us to attend the Sundance Film Festival for our next adventure!
If you aren’t one of Charisse’s getaway girlfriends, don’t worry … we’ll be sharing the Sundance experience via updates, photos and videos here on the blog. Stay tuned.
Timberland Travel Style: The Back Bay Series
If you’re one of the millions of people planning to travel this holiday season, here are a few packing tips to making your trip more fun and less frantic:
If you’re flying: Stash your bag in the overhead bin wheels-first, not side-first (easier to get in and out). Put address tags on both the inside and the outside of your luggage, as tags on the outside can get torn off during baggage handling.
If you’re driving: Bring a “recycle bag” for the car, and fill it as you go. There’s nothing worse than arriving at your destination and having to clean out the wrappers, bottles and napkins that have accumulated during the trip. Also be sure you have an actual, honest-to-goodness paper map in your glove compartment; navigation systems aren’t perfect!
And whether your holiday travel includes planes, trains or automobiles, be sure you’ve got the best bag for your belongings. Our Earthkeepers Back Bay Series is earth-conscious (made with 100% recycled nylon), water-resistant, functional, durable and travel-friendly:
The Back Bay laptop backpack and laptop briefcase feature padded shoulder straps and plenty of compartments … making the bags comfortable to carry, and keeping you organized.
Don’t underestimate the importance of spinner wheels … that’s a favorite feature of Back Bay suitcase owners! The small and medium upright spin suitcases keep you and your luggage rolling in the right direction, no matter what.
You can shop the Earthkeepers Back Bay collection (along with other great bags) on our website. Travel safe!
Behind the Scenes: Creating Timberland’s New Retail Experience
A few months back, we introduced you to the Timberland store in Westfield Stratford City in London – the first Timberland store to feature a new design intended to attract consumers to our products and our brand in a more inviting, engaging and emotional way.
It wasn’t a concept we dreamed up overnight or launched on a whim- but rather the result of a lot of thoughtful and deliberate effort on the part of our own Timberland team and our design partners. Now, we invite you to go behind the scenes with us to see how our new “retail experience” was created and brought to life:
Old Man Winter? He’s About to Meet His Match
If you looked up the phrase “Stay Warm” in the dictionary (one of those special dictionaries that includes phrases — and photos), we’re pretty sure you’d find a picture of this jacket. Legend has it your body temperature will increase a few degrees just from looking at it.
Meet Timberland’s Galehead Rugged Down Parka — the next best thing to a mid-winter trip to the tropics. The Galehead features 800-fill premium goose down, stitched into a two-layer waterproof nailhead canvas outer that’s crafted from 60% organic cotton and 40% recycled polyester. And because even tough guys have a soft side, the Galehead also comes with a fluffy, warm faux fur hood.
Fun fact: Down is nature’s best insulator — but it also tends to “leak” out of fabric over time. The solution is downproof apparel, designed to keep those feathers in place and keep you warm. You can learn more about downproof – and windproof, and other ways we work to make our products warm and comfortable – by checking out Timberland’s Technology Guide.
And if you don’t like blue, aren’t a fan of the faux fur? Not to worry – we’ve got a technical version of the Galehead that’s a bit spicier and sportier – and just as toasty.
Even Gulf Savers Need a Day of Rest
As promised, here is a video of Timberland’s service sabbatical participants Alan Jones and Heather Jackson, along with the rest of their In Good Company comrades, during a well-deserved day off from wetlands restoration. Alan’s commentary:
Last night was a rare treat as we all hosted a Cajun Zydeco band and danced till it hurt! I will miss these people at week’s end … what a group.
4,000 Bags of Gulf-Saving Goodness
Our Timberland service sabbatical recipients, Alan and Heather, are several days in to their week-long Louisiana bayou immersion. The two have been hard at work, but took time out to share the following update and incredible photos with us:
It has been a blast living and working with the 27 teammates of the 4th annual In Good Company partnership event.
We are spending much of this week working with the Restore the Earth Foundation, an incredible nonprofit focused on environmental conservation, protection and restoration. One of Restore the Earth’s initiatives is called Gulf Saver Solutions, and it entails “deploying” Gulf Saver bags — full of native marsh grasses and oil-eating micro-organisms which help to protect and restore natural wetland ecosystems and habitats. This week, our team has been working on filling, moving, staking and planting 4,000 Gulf Saver bags. Ours is the largest deployment to date! Read the rest of this entry »
Timberland Partnering with Ringo Starr for ‘Canvas that Cares’ Auction
The only thing better than our Earthkeepers boots? Earthkeepers boots designed by none other than rock and roll icon Ringo Starr!
This boot marks the launch of our newest initiative, Canvas that Cares — a program created to raise funds for non-profit organizations through the auction of limited edition Earthkeepers® footwear (Timberland’s most eco-minded collection) featuring celebrity artwork on Bionic® Canvas.
The boots feature Ringo Starr’s original artwork which includes a colorful peace sign (symbolic of his personal mantra of peace and love) and three stars embroidered along the back of the boot (a nod to his name). And to sweeten the deal, Ringo has personally autographed the 75 pairs that will be made available to the general public via an eBay auction. And what makes them even more exclusive? These boots are the first pieces of memorabilia that Ringo has autographed in over 3 years!
Love the boot? Get in on the Action!
The limited edition, autographed boots will be auctioned off on eBay between December 1 and December 11, with proceeds going to WaterAid, a non-profit dedicated to improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene in the world’s poorest communities. You can access the eBay auction through Timberland’s Canvas that Cares hub: www.timberland.com/canvasthatcares. The starting bid for each boot package is set at $250.
So get ready to bid early and bid often, for a good cause and a great pair of boots! To learn more about the program, auction, WaterAid and the collaboration, visit www.timberland.com/canvasthatcares.
Earthkeepers in NYC
Two weeks ago, we set up shop in the middle of New York City to showcase all things Earthkeepers – including educating consumers about our green initiatives, sharing our Fall 2011 Earthkeepers product collection, and even rewarding random acts of Earthkeeper kindness. Check it out:
Our Earthkeeper booth was made with 450 pounds of recycled plastic bottles.
Inside the booth, Earthkeeper products (made with recycled and renewable materials) are on display.
Our Timberland street team, looking for eco-conscious people to reward.
Be a hero. Plant a tree: When you plant one virtual tree in our Facebook Tree Planting app, we plant a real one!
You can see more of our Earthkeeper experience in New York City on Timberland’s YouTube channel. Next up, our Earthkeeper booth and street teams are headed to the West Coast – stay tuned for more photos and footage from San Francisco.
And as a reminder, tomorrow is your LAST CHANCE to vote and submit pics of your mountain chic style for our Girlfriend Getaway Sweepstakes. Be sure to share your photo with your friends, family and social communities to rack up the most votes — the top ten submissions receive a pair of Timberland boots and have a shot at winning the ultimate getaway to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Enter here: http://on.fb.me/ShowYourStyle
Back in the Bayou
This marks Timberland’s fourth year offering an Earthkeeper service sabbatical through In Good Company – a partnership of businesses joining together to make a difference through hands-on action. This year, we’ve chosen two well-deserving Timberland employees to join the In Good Company team in Venice, Louisiana (one hour south of New Orleans) for a week-long community service experience.
Alan Jones is an account executive for Timberland PRO, based in Texas. He participated in his first Timberland service event in New Orleans in 2006, following Hurricane Katrina — an experience that, he says, “set in motion my dedication to service and to this company.”
Heather Jackson is an order processing clerk at our distribution center in Danville, KY. Heather explains how she came to apply for the In Good Company sabbatical:
When I read about this opportunity, I went home that afternoon and talked with my seven-year-old son about why I want to do this and asked him what he thought. He said, “Mom, I want you to go. Go help the ocean.” I want to share my experience with my son and inspire him to make a difference.
Alan and Heather, along with the rest of their In Good Company companions, will spend this week serving with various nonprofit organizations that are working to clean up and regenerate areas of the bayou impacted by the 2010 oil spill. (Fun fact: two of the three previous In Good Company sabbatical experiences have also taken volunteers to Louisiana; you can read about all of the previous In Good Company sabbaticals here.)
The word for the week is “local” – Heather and Alan will spend their time learning about local activists, experiencing local culture and making local impact. And, they’ll be sharing their experiences with us here on the Bootmakers Blog – stay tuned for their updates.
