Timberland launches immersive gamified experience
Timberland is giving customers the chance to virtually relive major moments from its corporate history.
The outdoor gear and apparel brand is offering TimbsTrails, an immersive 3D online experience that consists of six “chapters” – New England Origins, Tokyo/London/Italy, Hip Hop Heritage, Green Dream, Collab City, and The Future – taken from different parts of its history (and planned future). New updates to the experience will be added each season.
The immersive TimbsTrails experience allows users to move through a realistic, 360-degree virtual environment on their computer or device screen, and interact with realistic digital characters. The experience also highlights a number of featured products from the past 50 years, ranging from the original 1973 Timberland yellow boot to the 2021 Greenstride boot.
In an element of gamification, consumers can collect boot badges as they journey through the first five chapters of the experience to “unlock” the final chapter and step into the future of Timberland. Players who successfully complete all chapters of the experience will be eligible to win TimbsTrails prizes, such as a gift card or a pair of Timberland boots. The competition is open to U.S. and U.K. residents only.
The early 2022 release of TimbsTrails follows Timberland’s December 2021 introduction of another online environment designed to simulate the real world. The company is utilizing the Vurvey AR solution to enable customers to digitally interact with concepts in 3D and visualize them in their physical environment.
The platform combines 3D visualization with video survey tools that Timberland uses to provide customers with a digital view of concepts that represent how they will appear in final execution, while collecting feedback. Timberland allows customers to virtually investigate the design details of a product and explain how they think the concept would function. Via Vurvey AR, customers can also identify which features of a new concept are most important to them, and highlight areas that feel confusing or misleading.
“Our brand fans have been a driving force in making Timberland the icon it is today, and we’re incredibly excited about the experiential journey we’ve created for them,” said Drieke Leenknegt, VP, global marketing, Timberland. “TimbsTrails provides a unique and entertaining platform to celebrate the footwear innovations and cultural moments that shaped our past, and explore our shared path forward. We’re always looking for new ways to engage our consumers, and TimbsTrails does that across the spectrum -- from a gamified digital experience right into our retail stores.”
“Never before has our footwear design timeline been laid out in such an engaging way,” said Chris McGrath, VP, global footwear design, Timberland.” With the iconic six-inch Classic Boot at the core, we journey through gems like the 3-Eye Handsewn Lug and the Super Boot, all the way to our latest GreenStride eco-innovations. TimbsTrails invites Timberland fans to explore our brand heritage through a digital adventure where they can relive the past, and unlock the future. It’s boot culture at its best.”
Based in Stratham, N.H., and a subsidiary of VF Corp., Timberland operates over 200 stores.