Timberland TravelGear
Sean sent me a link to this page over at Business Week. I haven’t seen these show up at any of the local stores I have been to lately. You can bet that I will go looking for them.
I have somewhat of a footwear fetish…at least as much as my budget can afford. Alot of my friends own one or two pairs of shoes that fit and look nice. I have somewhere around 30 pairs of shoes and sandals. Typically, I take 3 or 4 pairs with me on trips because I always want to be prepared for any situation. With the Timberland TravelGear footwear collection, I could shave some weight and size off of what I carry with me. The heaviest pair that I have is actually some Timberland Boots that I use for semi-formal dress. A setup using the Hong Kong shell could replace them.
The styling of each shell is really not too bad. It will be interesting to see how people react to them. I can see it as being a niche product that doesn’t catch on well with mainstream buyers. Sometimes customization isn’t a good idea. I am not sure about how comfortable I am with the idea of a shoe that is made up of 2-3 separate pieces. Sounds like blisters to me, but I could be wrong. I do hope that they continue to develop these. With some good real life use by the general public, I think they could be a great product.