How Timberland has built its future Future73 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the iconic Original Yellow Boot

In these strange times for the fashion industry, a collaboration can kill you or, even worse, it can seal your utter irrelevance in a universe that continues to move at the speed of light. Likewise, the right collaboration can give you a place in the world, helping consumers remember your uniqueness. But what happens when those collaborations are more than one, indeed more than five? And when they are accompanied by a series of initiatives that, in the process, aim to help consumers rediscover their true essence? This is a question to ask Timberland, which with Future73 celebrates 50 years of the iconic 6-inch yellow boots, with a special initiative involving six designers and creatives called upon to reinterpret their personal vision of the icon: Edison Chen, Samuel Ross, Suzanne Oude Hengel, Nina Chanel Abney, Humberto Leon and Christopher Raeburn.

The future

The concept of honesty is extremely present throughout the narrative of Future73, a project born with the aim of visualising the future of an object so iconic that it has represented the very essence of Timberland. Six completely different approaches that derive from six different visions of the world - as well as from six different parts of the world. For example, Edison Chen, the founder of CLOT, spoke about the process behind his understanding of collaborations, "facilitated" by his brand's role in Asia and around the world: «we try to emphasise the most iconic aspects of the brands we collaborate with, in a way that is authentic to our message and our brand. For us as CLOT, it is easier because we manage to represent China in a way that not many Chinese brands have managed to do».

For Humberto Leon, on the other hand, it was the idea of challenging the technological possibilities of the brand in reproducing a mold that had never been made before that made him want to be daring, as well as the crazy idea of not wanting to relate a garment to a specific seasonality: «in brands, every garment or shoe always has a seasonal function. But I grew up in California wearing 6-inch shorts and what I wanted was to make something that could be useful for every season». Suzanne Oude Hengel has deconstructed the classic Timberland boot through ingenious use of knitwear, while REABURN has relied on a certain idea of functionality and recycling - both his and Chen's creations are part of the Timberloop project dedicated to sustainability and the promotion of the circular economy - while Nina Chanel Abney, a painter and talented contemporary artist, has let her idea of Timberland guide her collaboration. Different approaches that identify perfectly with a brand's desire to do different things, moving from true American workwear (with TimberlandPro) to a focus on the outdoor world without forgetting what has made the Timberland 6-inch one of the most immediate American icons: the desire, while wearing a pair of boots, to feel good. In any way possible.