The use of logos as an antithesis to "logo fashion."

"There's something inherently appealing about professional-grade products. When you check each one, you find that even the analog functions are designed with heavy-duty use in mind. For example, with a full-zip hoodie, you can pull up the hood and tighten the drawstring to increase its warmth. But some Timberland Pro® products deliberately don't have a drawstring. This is because there's a risk of it getting caught in large machine tools like shearing machines, which could lead to serious accidents. I have a lot of respect for rational product design that was born from testing in such demanding environments, and I think it's really cool."

In other words, what Mr. Obana felt was fundamental to Timberland Pro® is nothing more than functional and rational design honed in the field, and the minimalism inherent in workwear.


"We aimed for minimal minor changes to refine the item into a fashion piece that can also be used professionally. And since very few people know the Timberland Pro® brand itself, we made sure to retain the important points so that the brand's unique design source can be clearly felt. We paid particular attention to the brand's iconic colors: rescue orange, gray, and black. In fact, black is the least common color in the inline collection. I thought that was interesting. Gray probably blends in well even if it gets dirty. Big brands like this also value the visual subliminal effect, so they don't take subtle color choices lightly. We made sure to adhere to that while aiming for something just slightly different."

It's interesting that one conclusion Mr. Obana reached in his pursuit of the essence of workwear and the fundamentals of Timberland Pro®, while aiming to elevate it into minimalist and modern street fashion, was to make full use of bold logos (tags).

Boots: Left/¥27,000 each, Right/¥19,440

"Also, even if a detail has meaning, if we think it would make the garment difficult to wear in town, we remove it without changing the design, such as the double knees on the pants or the protective plates on the toes of the chukka boots. However, since workwear is made up of only the bare minimum of elements, if it were to be displayed in a shop without a tag, it would be impossible to tell which brand it is. That's why the brand name and advertising are often prominently displayed. From that perspective, we adopted a special version tag with the N.Hoolywood logo and placed it in the most visible location so that even though the design itself is minimal, it is immediately recognizable as Timberland Pro®. I think this is the biggest feature of the design. Although we have pushed the logo to the front, the design was born from a completely different approach from the current logo boom. I think that's interesting, and we may have intentionally incorporated it."

This collection will finally be released on November 17th (Saturday) at Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd floor = International Creators, as well as Timberland Isetan Shinjuku PC4 store, Timberland official online shop, and N. Hollywood retailers.

Photo: Natsuko Okada
Text: Junya Hasegawa (america)

*All prices include tax.

inquiry
Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd Floor = International Creators
03-3352-1111 (main representative)