Timberland Men's Earthkeepers Rippler Chuka Boots Review
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Timberland's new to the eco footwear world, but it's jumped in both feet first. This pair of bloke's fashion boots are its flagship design in a range of ten 'Earthkeeper' shoes that each have a different twist to make them a little kinder to the planet, varying from using organic cotton to recycled materials.
These Rippler Chukas combine both organic cotton for the upper canvas and 30 per cent recycled rubber for the soles. As you'll have clocked from the photos, they're a pair of everyday walking boots intended more for pounding urban streets than demanding Peak District hikes.
On first impressions of our test pair, we were erring on the opinion that they were too hippy dippy for our style. But after dozens of flattering comments, we've come down on the verdict that the boots are hippy chic. Cool, not crusty.
They're good quality as well as good-looking. We've enjoyed wearing them, running for the bus in them and cycling in them. They're waterproof (rain-proof rather than river-fording-proof), comfy and supported our feet well. The shoes are well suited for summer as they're very lightweight and breathable -- we found them mercifully unsweaty.
Although the laces aren't particularly green, the canvas upper is made from organic cotton and the sole's part-recycled rubber
The only bum note we'd sound on quality is the ease of cleaning. We accidentally got some black oil stain marks from our bike chain on them and found the light colour showed stains badly. Even after a wash, they didn't return fully to their original sparkling "light tan". Look after them, though, and you should be fine.
So how green are these shoes? Well, the canvas is 100 per cent organic cotton and the rubber sole is 30 per cent recycled rubber. That's pretty good. Conventional cotton's the most pesticide-sprayed crop on the planet, so any cut in that use of chemicals is good news for cotton farmers and their fields. Although we couldn't glean any further info from Timberland about where these materials were sourced from, the boots' use of eco materials makes them streets ahead of the offerings from other high street fashion brands.
As a company, Timberland's making inroads on greening up. Its corporate sustainability report, which recently won an award, details some of its efforts. In the UK, we've been impressed by its introduction of products with organic cotton, bamboo and recycled materials, plus its use of reclaimed materials and energy-saving measures at its flagship Regent Street store. UK staff even get one day a year to spend tree-planting (it's an impressive sight -- we popped along to their 2007 planting).
Working conditions and ethics are more of a mixed bag. On this specific pair of boots, we spoke to Timberland and asked for more info about where and how they were made. We asked, and we asked again. Then we asked a few more times, but still we couldn't glean any further info on working conditions. Timberland explained they were pushed for time, but we did give them two months.
One bummer is that the light tan colour of the shoes does stain pretty easily
At a corporate level, Timberland's had plenty of criticism for the treatment of workers at its supplier factories. A 2000 report on a Chinese factory making Timberland shoes talked of unpaid overtime, 14-hour days and 100-degrees-Fahrenheit working conditions; another Timberland factory called Kingmaker ran into trouble in 2004; and the 2008 Play Fair report lists a Timberland factory that came under fire for hours and conditions.
The good news is Timberland does seem to be genuinely addressing these concerns. It has a strongly worded code of conduct on worker rights and is respected in the industry for its efforts to cut down on sweatshop and poor worker conditions. So the net result is we've given Timberland a middling score on ethics, reflecting its lack of detail on this shoe and its track record, but taking into account its efforts to improve.
If you're after a pair of sturdy and genuinely eco boots from a company that's ahead of its rivals on sustainability, you won't go far wrong with these Earthkeepers this summer.
Quality
Value
Ethics
Green
