A Canadian footwear campaign, shot on a Kelowna cliff edge — moodier, more cinematic, more terrain.
Timberland Canada needed campaign frames that didn't look like every other lifestyle book — less studio polish, more weather and rock. The shoot went on location to Kelowna, BC: dark moss-covered rock above the Okanagan, cold morning air, the iconic yellow nubuck against a near-black ground. The hero frame was shot from the wearer's own point of view, looking straight down over the cliff edge.
The brief
Timberland Canada had the standard lifestyle book covered — clean studio product, smiling cast, friendly daylight. What the team wanted next was a smaller set of frames that earned the rougher, more atmospheric end of the brand: weather, terrain, the boot doing real work. The yellow boot is one of the most recognisable silhouettes in footwear; the question was whether we could put it in a frame that felt cinematic rather than catalogue.
The frame had to do two jobs at once. It had to live on the brand's own channels as an editorial moment alongside the existing campaign, and it had to cut down to performance assets — 1:1, 4:5 and 9:16 — that pull weight on Meta and TikTok without losing the mood.
The plan
The shoot went on location to Kelowna, BC — cliffs above the Okanagan, dark moss-covered rock, cold pre-sunrise light, dried grasses at the cliff edge and snow remnants in the shaded pockets. One cast member, one wardrobe brief: light wash jeans with authentic frayed rips, the iconic yellow nubuck, no other boots. The hero frame was shot from the wearer's own point of view, looking straight down over the edge — so the boot is what the customer sees when they're standing on rock that matters.
We graded for restraint, not pop. The boots are warm and recognisable but never glowing — softened honey-mustard with visible wear at the toes — so they sit naturally inside the moody scene rather than fighting it. Crushed but not blocked shadows, slight teal undertone in the rock, no aggressive highlights.
What we delivered
- 1 hero campaign still — 16:9 web hero
- Cropped paid cuts in 1:1, 4:5 and 9:16 from the same frame, regraded per surface
- A second wider environmental frame for editorial use
- A clean nubuck product detail set, lit to match the cliff scene
- One-day shoot, three-day delivery on selects, full delivery in seven days
The outcome
The cliff-edge frame became Timberland Canada's lead editorial image for the season — used on the homepage, in the seasonal newsletter and across paid social. The 9:16 cut outperformed the brand's previous lifestyle creative on Reels by a comfortable margin in the first two weeks. More importantly, the team came away with a visual reference for what a moodier, more terrain-driven Timberland frame can look like — a direction the brand can keep building inside without losing the heritage.
"One frame did more for the season than half the rest of the book. The cliff-edge shot is the one we keep coming back to — it's the boot, the terrain, and nothing else."
— Timberland Canada brand teamWhat we'd do again
- Shoot from the wearer's own point of view. POV frames cut through a paid social feed faster than a third-person hero — and they let the product do the talking.
- Grade for restraint. The boot is recognisable enough on its own; it doesn't need to be lit or graded into a glow. Soften the highlights, let the scene hold the mood.
- Pick terrain that does real work in frame. The dark moss-covered rock above the Okanagan gave us the visual weight a Canadian footwear story needs — weather, scale and ground that earns the boot.
- Build the paid cuts inside the same grade as the hero. Regrade-per-surface is faster and tighter than re-shooting for vertical.