he sees customers and consumers not as passive recipients of what the company provides but as "citizens" with a stake in the company who should be given every opportunity to tell what they want. employees are not "hired hands" to be ordered around, but "paid timberland footwear volunteers" who come to work because they believe in what the company is doing. as part of this ethic, the company provides 40 paid timberland outlets hours of time a year for employees to do volunteer work. they apply this time to projects they care about.

suppliers are required to meet standards of quality on the products, and how they produce them. for example, timberland wants to be sure that its products are not produced by child labor.

shareholders should get good financial results and the satisfaction of owning a stake in a company whose values they can be proud of. mr. swartz also sees his responsibility as bringing the community into the company. as two examples, timberland provides day care on premises and also is a national supporter of city year, a national youth service organization located in 13 cities around the united states.

many timberland employees also work on city year projects. company-sponsored volunteerism goes in so many directions, that mr. swartz doesn't even try to keep track of all the activities it supports. while many other companies publicly espouse these kinds of positive values, timberland makes sure there is no mistake about its intent in order to be sure that resources its fine business model creates are shared fairly.

the timberland cadion waterproof mid gore-tex xcr is a medium width hiking boot that offers extra strength, waterproofing, and lightweight. this boot uses a fabric that is made of swiss nylon, schoeller material, polyester, lycra, and coolmax. these materials make this boot very light and the gore-tex xcr keeps it waterproof even when submerged in the water. this boot has received several praises mens chukka boots from hiking boot reviews and was awarded with the backpacker magazine 2006 editor's choice award. this timberland boot is available at around $140 in local and online stores. the danner radical 452 gtx ($130) and the columbia frontier peak gtx ($120) also show some good reviews because of the comfort that they offer. the danner is now only available for men and the columbia is now phased out and replaced by the titanium daska pass hiking boots.