Timberland Brand: Three Generations of Leather Boots

Money in the world is packed in American pockets, while American money is packed in Jewish pockets. Starting from scratch, the Jewish Swartz family, the top leisure and outdoor brand in the United States, founded the Jewish Swartz family. With his three generations of boots and boots, he interprets a story of national pride, strong affection and commercial wisdom.

White-handed family

For thousands of years, the Jews have been likened to a dried seed in the desert. As long as a light rain, it will germinate and flourish. This long-time marginalized nation with no land and no country has uneasily walked through expulsion orders and stakes. But as long as there is a period of peace that is not very long, the Jews can rise rapidly from commercial activities. This is a true portrayal of Nathan Swartz, the founder of the $2.1 billion outdoor leisure brand Timberland.

In 1918, Nathan Swartz, a teenage Russian immigrant, was queuing up in front of Alice Island, home to the famous US Immigration Bureau. The huge statue of Liberty is right in front of his eyes at this moment, making his mind ups and downs. Like other tens of thousands of immigrants, Nathan travels across the ocean to an unfamiliar continent, hoping to take root in this exotic country from now on and establish his own business down-to-earth. Indeed, for this pious Orthodox Jews, everything starts from the feet because his identity is a shoemaker.

Nathan settled in Abington, a professional Boston shoe company founded in 1918. From the time when the apprentice was sutured, he used his own hands to cut the leather, sew the seams, sewed the soles, and learned how to make beautiful leather shoes by hand. By 1952, as a Jewish business talent, Nathan earned enough money to buy half of the company’s shares and became Abington’s wholly-owned owner three years later.

When Nathan welcomed the second-generation family member, two sons Sidney and Herman, Abington became an OEM manufacturer, manufacturing shoes for the top manufacturers for nearly a decade. All of this is quite complete for a completely self-made immigrant. The only regret is that they do not have their own brand of shoes.

In the United States, the New England climate is cold and wet in winter and the road is often muddy. For workers engaged in outdoor work, a pair of waterproof non-slip and durable shoes can be encountered without a single request. Because in the 1960s, so-called waterproof leather shoes did not exist. Nathan, who is a working-class native, quickly noticed the vacuum of this demand. After 10 years of painstaking research, the Swartz family introduced "injection molding" technology into the footwear industry. This technology combines the sole with the upper leather without stitching, creating the first double-handed, true waterproof boots.

Feelings of father and son

If Nathan, the first generation member of the Swartz family, is a craftsman who knows how to make shoes, his son Sidney Swartz is an outstanding modern enterprise manager. Nathan developed waterproof shoe technology, his son embarked on the road to industrialization. In 1973, the Timberland brand with a wood sign was born as a trademark of the original waterproof leather boot. The meaning of the English word Timberland, it is interpreted as "forest". Timberland's original classic yellow leather boots were originally made by hand. At that time, only 98 pairs of leather boots were produced at the boot factories. Today's Timberland leather boots have been machine-assisted, and the product line has expanded into the field of clothing and accessories, but Sidney still strives to insist: "Every piece of Timberland's products are thought to be a pair of boots."

Due to the tough and rough image of the Timberland brand, the Timberland brand was welcomed by lumberjacks, construction workers and hikers. Sidney also changed its name to The Timberland Company in 1978. Many of the major measures he later led gradually laid the foundation for Timberland’s position in the international market today. First, Sidney began a continuous product extension. In 1978 and 1979, casual shoes and sailing shoes were added to the Timberland collection, which is no longer limited to a leather shoe company. Afterwards, Timberland launched the same name apparel, women's and children's shoes and watches, backpacks, travel accessories, gloves and leather care products and other accessories. In 1980, the company began to expand into the international market. The first stop selected the Italian market, and now the business has spread all over the world. In advertising promotion, Sidney launched the company’s first advertising campaign and received media recognition for its creativity. Timberland became the first footwear manufacturer to advertise on television worldwide. In 1987, Timberland was listed on the American Stock Exchange and subsequently transferred to the New York Stock Exchange.

As a third-generation descendant, Jeffrey is still fresh in his memory of changing his own destiny. When his grandfather, Nathan, was born, he always opposed the loving grandson to participate in leather shoes. For this old immigrant who suffers from the difficulties of displacement, it is undoubtedly more stable and more secure to be a doctor than to be a shoe trader. He often told his grandson Jeffrey: "The skills needed to be a doctor will always be in your head, and no one can take it away." And Jeffrey also listens to Grandpa's words, he is trying hard to learn Russian for his grandfather. The native language chatter, on the one hand, is determined to become a surgeon. However, during summer vacation, Jeffrey still went to the shoe factory to help sweep the floor and paint the walls.

When the news of Grandpa's death came, Jeffrey graduated from high school and was traveling in Israel. He immediately returned to the shoe factory to accompany his father. However, everything changed that summer: Jeffrey found himself falling in love with the cause of making leather boots. “Everything in the factory is so lively and interesting,” recalls Jeffrey. “This is where the raw material turns into a dream.” So on one day, Jeffrey sat down with his father Sidney. He said: "I no longer want to be a surgeon. I want to work in Timberland." Sidney murmured and the room was silent. Finally, the father who worked hard at the mall for the rest of his life replied, "I've been waiting for you to say this sentence all my life." So, Jeffrey gave up going to medical school and went to study at Dartmouth Business School.

Jeffrey is neither an excellent shoemaker nor a separate second-generation corporate manager. However, this young man has shown a distinctive advantage in his future work. He is good at building a large intangible asset for the company. It can be said that Jeffrey is an outstanding brand marketer.

Sidney bought the other half of Timberland shares owned by the retiring brother Herman in 1986. As the family business cannot avoid, the father and son began a long period of running-in. Jeffrey admitted that as a graduate of a business school, he is always eager to practice what he learned in the classroom. But at this time Father Sidney would say: "I have not learned this, but I believe my intuition." "After some time, I learned to appreciate my father's intuition." Jeffrey said.