Timberland Taps Consumers To Design Its Next Boots
Want to be Timberland's next designer? Now, consumers have that chance. Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland and Betabrand, a crowdfunded clothing company, are collaborating on a unique, crowdsourced product development project to bring Timberland's new Craftletic collection to life. Through this partnership, Timberland is turning to Betabrand and consumers around the globe to help shape its new shoe collection through an inspired co-creation process.
This partnership will help inform design and product merchandising decisions for Timberland's new Craftletic collection, which marries the brand's craftsmanship with an athletic ease-of-wear for faster styling. By tapping directly into Betabrand consumers for insights, the collection will be built from the ground up, arriving to market in Fall 2016 to Betabrand shoppers and through select Timberland distribution channels.
How does it work?
Timberland's internal design collective sketched the shape and structure of 14 styles across three unisex boot categories, which will later become footwear for men and women. A two-phase process puts consumers in the driver's seat:
Phase 1-The Timberland x Betabrand Think Tank:
Consumers are invited to interact with the Timberland design collective by voting and commenting on three unisex Timberland concepts they'd like to see come to market, while also weighing in on design elements from materials, color and even if the shoe will be for men or women. The concepts – Modern Nomad, Urbanization and Neorganic – will be up on Betabrand's site until March 17th. From there, the best-received idea will get made into a prototype based on the actual suggestions from the crowd.
Phase 2-Craftletic Crowdfunding:
The prototypes becomes available for crowdfunding on May 13th. Consumers will be asked to bid on the footwear they helped create and within a short window, data will determine if the chosen Craftletic design created enough demand to go into production.
This partnership will help inform design and product merchandising decisions for Timberland's new Craftletic collection, which marries the brand's craftsmanship with an athletic ease-of-wear for faster styling. By tapping directly into Betabrand consumers for insights, the collection will be built from the ground up, arriving to market in Fall 2016 to Betabrand shoppers and through select Timberland distribution channels.
How does it work?
Timberland's internal design collective sketched the shape and structure of 14 styles across three unisex boot categories, which will later become footwear for men and women. A two-phase process puts consumers in the driver's seat:
Phase 1-The Timberland x Betabrand Think Tank:
Consumers are invited to interact with the Timberland design collective by voting and commenting on three unisex Timberland concepts they'd like to see come to market, while also weighing in on design elements from materials, color and even if the shoe will be for men or women. The concepts – Modern Nomad, Urbanization and Neorganic – will be up on Betabrand's site until March 17th. From there, the best-received idea will get made into a prototype based on the actual suggestions from the crowd.
Phase 2-Craftletic Crowdfunding:
The prototypes becomes available for crowdfunding on May 13th. Consumers will be asked to bid on the footwear they helped create and within a short window, data will determine if the chosen Craftletic design created enough demand to go into production.