This is the story of the Timberland yellow boot, a Hip Hop icon that had lost its hip and its hop with the youth market, and how we made it relevant again. We decided to get back to what the kids loved about Timberland, the boot itself. So we created 10061.com, an online community for self-expression named after the boot’s original SKU number. We had artists design original boots for the site. We made movies about the artists. We invited visitors to submit their own art and movies to the User Gallery.

To celebrate community and self-expression, we created 10061.com, a website named after the SKU of the Timberland yellow boot. We launched the site with a leather billboard campaign that supported the concept and would evolve into different media outlets. First, each billboard was erected as a blank leather canvas in The Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem. Second, artists painted the boards during a live promotional event. Third, the murals would live as billboards for 30 days. After that, they would become art installations in local community centers. And lastly, the adorned leather would be used to make limited edition boots.

The objectives of the leather billboards were three-fold. First, they functioned as unique billboards for 30 days, generating exposure in high traffic areas of Brooklyn, Harlem, and The Bronx. Second, and more importantly, it was designed to generate word-of-mouth and PR in the New York community, especially among influencers in the boot/sneaker/design culture. It’s estimated that the project has received 3-4 million media impressions. The third goal was to generate awareness for Timberland’s new website, 10061.com. To date, over 50,000 users have experienced the site, spending an average of 5.5 minutes per session and uploading over 200 art and video submissions to the user gallery.