Ford has been leaning harder than ever into the apparel game recently. Last year, the American automaker partnered up with a custom belt buckle maker to develop the “Truckle,” a belt buckle that also doubles as a secure storage location for your truck’s key fob. Then, last month, it launched a whole clothing line with Zara, which included stuff like jackets, shirts, and hats.
Today, Ford revealed its next apparel partnership, and aside from the Truckle, it’s certainly the weirdest partnership-product I’ve seen in a long while. The automaker has teamed up with Timberland, the well-known maker of utilitarian footwear, to make a pair of F-150-themed work boots.
Normally, I wouldn’t really care about a pair of car-themed boots. There are plenty of car-themed shoes out there. Puma works with Ferrari and BMW to sell Ferrari- and BMW M-themed sneakers, each with their own respective color schemes and logos. Porsche has an entire lineup of sneakers, running shoes, slides, and cleats to choose from.
But unlike most car-themed shoes, Timberland’s F-150 Pro Boondock boots are far more than just a color scheme and a Ford oval on the side. There are specific design changes made to the boot to make it physically look like an F-150, including embossed badges on the back and a molded rubber section near the toes designed to look like the grille. Here, just look at this:
That’s a whole-ass grille, embedded right into the front of the boot! While there are no headlights, the slats and the honeycomb pattern are there, just like they are on the real truck. There’s even a big Ford emblem in the middle. While not quite on the same level, it sort of reminds me of the kid-size Lightning McQueen slippers, which resemble Lightning McQueen more than they do an actual piece of footwear:
It doesn’t stop there. While the boots don’t have a pickup bed or tailgate, they do have a large F-150 badge embossed into the rubber at the heel area, just like you’d see on the tailgate of the real truck:
There are numerous flashes of Ford Blue throughout the shoe, including a strip along the sole, braided into the laces, and on the “Pro” logos found on the sides and underneath of the boot.
The upper part of the shoe’s interior, meanwhile, is fully blue mesh.
There are, of course, logos everywhere. In addition to the grille and the F-150 badge at the heel, you’ll find another Ford oval at the base of the laces, and an F-150 badge on either end of the top portion, near where your foot enters the shoe. There’s also Ford script branding on the inside, just above the Timberland Pro logo.
As for what Timberland expects people to use the F-150 boots for, it feels like they’re unsurprisingly targeting the same people that buy F-150s, using lots of utilitarian-themed buzzwords in their description:
This season, two American heritage brands come together. Taking cues from the tires that power through dirt to create boots that stand firm in it, this collab proves that strength comes from the ground up. Rugged Timberland PRO® Boondock Work Boots bring durability and resilience to the jobsite, with styling details inspired by Ford’s legendary pickup.
For what it’s worth, these boots do have a pretty solid list of features. They have anti-fatigue tech in the footbed for shock absorption, a waterproof exterior, and meet the American Society for Testing and Materials standards for protection against live electrical circuits. But they’re not steel-toe boots, so if you handle heavy or sharp things often, I wouldn’t recommend them.
If you aren’t a fan of the color but still want to rep your loyalty to Ford, Timberland also offers an all-black version, complete with all of the same moldings but none of the blue flashiness.
Whether you go for the standard style or the all-black version, Timberland’s F-150 boots are priced from $240. That’s only $20 more expensive than the standard Boondock work boot, which is shaped the same and has the same features. Personally, I’m not sure whether this is cool or goofy, but if I had an F-150 and I was in the market for a pair of nice boots, I’d probably buy a pair of these, just to see if my friends and co-workers on the job site would notice. What’s life without a bit of whimsy?
Top graphic images: Ford; Timberland
I’m afraid you aren’t presenting the full scope of the product – there *IS* a safety toe version offered, in a composite (as opposed to steel) which in cold climates or on cold concrete is often less likely to get as cold or hold the coldness in the toe-box.
Right on the site it offers three bits of safety info:
To represent them as ONLY being offered as a soft toe is kinda misleading.
Soft toe version:
https://www.timberland.com/en-us/p/timberland-pro/mens-footwear-10171/mens-timberland-pro-x-ford-boondock-6-waterproof-work-boot-TB0A5PW5EDU
Safety version:
https://www.timberland.com/en-us/p/timberland-pro/mens-footwear-10171/mens-timberland-pro-x-ford-boondock-6-composite-toe-waterproof-work-boot-TB0A2R6EANI
These will be perfect for those times when your F*rd breaks down and you have to walk home.
If you spell F*rd backwards, it stands for Driver Returns On Foot. 🙂
To paraphrase Bill Watterson: If your identity is so tied up in brands that you want to pay a company so that you can advertise another company’s products, go ahead. Just don’t complain when you are thrown off every worksite you visit
Wish I had opened the link in incognito. I’m hoping they don’t remarket this goofy product to me!
I know guys that swear up and down by timberland pros. I don’t get but whatever. There had to be a better company they could have gone with especially the whole American heritage thing maybe redwing or danner would have been a better fit.
Maybe timberland is getting set up to the new Eddie Bauer. Maybe ll bean can get back in the running after the short lived Subaru thing.
Timberland already jumped the shark in the late 2000’s when rappers were wearing them. I ended up with a pair of clearance Timberlands when I was working as a farmhand in highschool. They were perfectly okay boots, but everyone at school was aghast that I let my boots get dirty.
The platform soled version would be the F150 Bigfoot model.
Meh, I think I’ll wait for the Super Duty with Steel Toe…
I liked their collab with Justin Timberlake better.
How they made the world’s tallest toe box and then didn’t make them safety rated is beyond me.
Who pays the freight when they are recalled?
Perfect for the owners of most Ford Trucks: they can continue cosplaying as blue-collar workers without doing any actual labor.