The relationship between Timberland and Christopher RÆBURN developed over more than five years, growing from an initial creative collaboration into a far broader partnership encompassing creative direction, product design, material innovation, circularity, regenerative thinking and experimentation at scale.

What began with Timberland appearing as part of RÆBURN’s catwalk show at London Fashion Week ultimately led to Christopher's appointment as Global Creative Director and the opportunity to work across an international organisation.

Along the way, the partnership created space to question how products were made, explore new materials and systems, learn directly from Timberland's archive and heritage, and test how Responsible Design principles could operate at a completely different scale.

The partnership was an evolving relationship between two organisations with complementary values;  combining Timberland's expertise in durable, purposeful product with RÆBURN's approach to RÆMADE experimentation, resourcefulness and Responsible Design.

The overview below brings together defining milestones that demonstrate how the partnership evolved; from that first London Fashion Week collaboration through creative leadership, experimentation and systems thinking, to Timberland's 50th anniversary and a shared exploration of what might come next.

The Timberland × RÆBURN partnership began with a shared belief that Responsible Design could be a catalyst for creativity.

For the first collaboration, Christopher immersed himself in the Timberland archive, searching markets and second-hand stores for original pieces from the brand's past. These existing garments became the raw material for a series of one-of-one RÆMADE pieces, carefully deconstructed and reconstructed at the RÆBURN atelier in London.

The process brought the two worlds together naturally. Timberland's heritage in durable, purposeful outdoor product provided both material and inspiration, while the RÆMADE methodology offered a way to reconsider familiar archetypes through deconstruction, craft and experimentation.

The resulting collection was presented at London Fashion Week Men's; the first time Timberland had appeared on the London Fashion Week catwalk. Alongside the apparel, footwear brought Timberland's product heritage into the wider presentation, beginning a dialogue that would become increasingly important as the partnership developed.

Crucially, the project didn't end with the one-of-one RÆMADE pieces. The experimental garments became prototypes for a commercial collection, translating their ideas into products made using more responsible materials, including organic cotton and recycled PET derived from plastic bottles.

That process established an important model for everything that followed: experiment first, learn through making, then find ways to translate those ideas at scale. What began as a collaboration between two brands had demonstrated something much bigger; that RÆMADE experimentation could become a catalyst for commercially viable product and, ultimately, wider change.

The success of the first collaboration opened the door to something far more ambitious. In 2018, Christopher was appointed Global Creative Director of Timberland, moving from external collaborator to working within the organisation and taking on a role that extended across the brand's global creative vision.

The opportunity was significant. Timberland is a truly global business built around one of the most recognisable footwear icons in the world, with decades of expertise in craft, utility and the outdoors.

Christopher's remit now extended across footwear, apparel and accessories, working alongside Timberland's product, design, marketing and innovation teams to consider how those different disciplines could connect through a clearer creative vision and a shared commitment to Responsible Design.

Footwear was naturally at the heart of that challenge, but the ambition went much further than individual products or collections. 

The role created an opportunity to think holistically about the brand;  from product and material innovation to communication, retail environments and how Timberland's heritage could be respected while continuing to evolve.

Working from London while spending significant time with Timberland teams in the United States, Europe and Asia the challenge was to connect and empower the expertise that already existed across different regions, categories and disciplines.

An important part of that approach was the development of a Creative Council, bringing together voices from across the organisation to share ideas, challenge assumptions and create greater alignment around Timberland's creative direction. 

If the Global Creative Director role created the opportunity to influence a global organisation, CONSTRUCT:10061 demonstrated the importance of creating space for other voices to challenge it.

Established by Timberland in collaboration with Daniel Bailey and CONCEPTKICKS, CONSTRUCT:10061 brought together designers, makers, innovators and Timberland craftspeople to rethink the process of boot-making from the ground up. Daniel was a driving force behind the initiative, building a platform around experimentation, transparency and the cross-pollination of different creative disciplines.

For Christopher, the opportunity was both to participate and, as Global Creative Director, to help champion the importance of this kind of experimentation within Timberland. There were clear parallels with RÆBURN's own belief in craft, creativity and community: bring talented people together, give them access to materials, machinery and expertise, and create the conditions for unexpected ideas to emerge.

The connection between RÆBURN and Earthkeepers began long before the partnership itself.

In 2007, just a year after Christopher graduated from the Royal College of Art, Timberland introduced the first Earthkeepers® boot. Made using recycled, organic and renewable materials, it represented a remarkably progressive approach from a global footwear brand at the time.

For Christopher, then a young designer beginning to develop his own approach to responsible design, Earthkeepers was an important reference — evidence that material choices, durability and environmental responsibility could become drivers for innovation rather than limitations on creativity.

More than a decade later, Christopher would have the opportunity to help take that thinking forward from within Timberland.

Earthkeepers® by RÆBURN became a focused platform for experimentation across footwear, apparel and accessories, bringing Timberland's longstanding commitment to responsible product together with the RÆBURN approach to materials, archive, utility and RÆMADE thinking.

Christopher described the collection as a “pathfinder”: an evolving space where responsible design and innovation could be explored through real products. Across successive collections, that meant working with natural and recycled materials, regenerative leather and organic cotton, recycled down and recycled synthetics, while continuing to challenge how familiar Timberland archetypes might be reconsidered. 

The platform also created an opportunity to connect experimentation with scale. Ideas could move between RÆMADE prototypes, material research and commercially produced collections, allowing the team to test not only what a more responsible product could be made from, but how it might be designed differently from the outset.

Responsible Design couldn't stop at choosing better materials. The bigger opportunity was to reconsider the system around the product — what it was made from, how it was constructed, how long it could remain useful and, ultimately, what might happen at the end of its first life.

 Christopher worked alongside teams across Timberland to explore circularity through materials, methods of make and product design, with the ambition of keeping products and resources in use for longer. 

Launched in 2022, Timberloop™ brought much of this thinking together through a broader circular design platform connecting products designed for circularity with take-back, repair and refurbishment, resale and recycling.

The principle was increasingly clear: circular thinking needed to begin at the design stage, not at the end of a product's life.

The Earthkeepers® by RÆBURN Timberloop™ Utility Mid made this thinking tangible. Developed as part of the Earthkeepers by RÆBURN collection, the boot was specifically designed for disassembly, allowing its different components to be separated at the end of its useful life and directed towards their next application rather than treating the complete product as waste.

The Utility Mid brought together 100% recycled PET, regenerative leather, regenerative rubber and organic cotton, but the innovation wasn't simply in the materials themselves. The important shift was in considering how those materials were assembled — and, crucially, how they could ultimately come apart.

It represented a broader evolution in the design methodology: not simply designing a better product, but designing for what happens next.

After more than three years as Global Creative Director, Christopher's relationship with Timberland evolved again in 2022 as he became Collaborator at Large — creating a new model that allowed the partnership to continue while bringing a different degree of independence and perspective.

The role built on the knowledge, relationships and shared ambition established over the preceding years. Christopher continued to lead creative thinking around Earthkeepers by RÆBURN, while also supporting Timberland's wider network of collaborators and projects.

Having worked both outside and inside the organisation, the opportunity was now to operate somewhere between the two: connecting Timberland's global scale, expertise and heritage with the agility, experimentation and collaborative culture of the RÆBURN studio.

The partnership between Timberland and Tommy Hilfiger demonstrated what that collaborative model could achieve. Bringing together two globally recognised American brands with a shared cultural history, the project began by returning to their archives — exploring the colours, graphics, silhouettes and products that had helped define both brands during the 1990s.

The RÆBURN studio in London became a creative meeting point for the project, bringing together teams from Tommy Hilfiger in Amsterdam and Timberland's global organisation. Archive research, initial styling and creative direction were developed through the studio, before working closely with both businesses as the ideas moved through product development and towards a global launch.

Across two drops, the resulting collection brought together apparel, footwear and accessories, combining recognisable elements from both archives while introducing progressive materials, multifunctional design and a more responsible approach to product. 

Fifty years after the Original Timberland® Boot was created in 1973, Timberland chose to celebrate its anniversary by looking forward. FUTURE73 invited six international designers, artists and creative thinkers to reconsider one of the most recognisable products in the brand's history — asking how an icon shaped by five decades of culture, craft and utility might continue to evolve

The breadth of collaborators was fundamental to the project. Samuel Ross, Nina Chanel Abney, Edison Chen, Humberto Leon, Suzanne Oude Hengel and Christopher RÆBURN each brought a radically different perspective, spanning fashion, contemporary art, street culture, material research and footwear innovation. Rather than asking everyone to arrive at the same answer, FUTURE73 created space for six distinct interpretations of Timberland's past and possible futures.

The starting point was once again the Original Timberland® Boot. Christopher spent a formative week at The Shed, Timberland's prototyping lab and maker space in New Hampshire, physically dissecting and reconstructing the 6-Inch Boot. Parachute fabric, Tyvek and snow camouflage entered the experimentation as familiar RÆBURN materials were brought into direct conversation with Timberland's most recognisable icon.

The resulting Future73 6-Inch Pull-On Boot drew inspiration from parachute canopies, introducing a protective outer shell constructed from climbing rubber and recycled nylon. Inside, a removable insulated bootie could be worn independently, bringing adaptability and modularity to a silhouette refined over half a century. The wider capsule extended the thinking into apparel, continuing the dialogue between protection, utility, responsible materials and circular design.

FUTURE73 ultimately brought the partnership back to where it had begun: taking something that already existed, understanding what made it valuable and asking what else it might become. 

For Christopher, the project also represented the culmination of a long-term relationship. After more than five years working with Timberland as collaborator, Global Creative Director and Collaborator at Large, FUTURE73 brought together many of the ideas explored throughout that journey: archive and heritage, RÆMADE experimentation, responsible materials, circularity, craft and the value of collaboration itself.