The North Face

The North Face
The North Face, Inc.
Type Subsidiary
Industry Retail
Founded 1966
Headquarters San Leandro, California, United States
Area served North America, South America, Europe & Asia Pacific
Products Clothing, outdoor gear
Production output China,[1] Bangladesh, Vietnam, India [2]
Parent VF Corporation
Website www.thenorthface.com

The North Face, Inc. is an American outdoor product company specializing in outerwear, fleece, shirts, footwear, and equipment such as backpacks, tents, and sleeping bags.

The clothing and equipment lines are catered towards wilderness chic, climbers, mountaineers, skiers, snowboarders, hikers, and endurance athletes.

The company sponsors professional athletes from the worlds of running, climbing, skiing and snowboarding including David Carrier Porcheron and Johan Olofsson.

Contents

History

The North Face brand was established in 1966[3] in San Francisco, when Douglas Tompkins and Kenneth "Hap" Klopp created an equipment retail store that eventually acquired the name The North Face.[3] This name was chosen because the north face of a mountain in the northern hemisphere is generally the most difficult face to climb.[3] By the 1980s, skiwear was added to the line of products, and eventually camping equipment was added as well. The North Face is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the VF Corporation.[4]

Today, The North Face is based in San Leandro, California, near its corporate sibling, JanSport.[5] JanSport is the world's largest backpack maker and together, JanSport and The North Face manufacture nearly half of all small backpacks sold in the United States.[5]

The North Face's logo designed by California designer David Alcorn in 1971, consists of a slightly skewed quarter-circle with two lines running within it. This image is an interpretation of Half Dome, a massive granitic monolith in Yosemite National Park,[3] viewed from the west, with the sheer north (or northwest) face of Half Dome to the left.

The North Face maintains strong links with the outdoor community through its sponsored athlete program. Athletes such as Lizzy Hawker who recently[when?] won the Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc have benefited greatly from the program.

Rise in popularity, counterfeiting, and theft

In the late 1990s and early 2000s with the rise of wilderness chic, The North Face became a well-known brand and its popularity, especially among youth and college students, increased substantially. Due to the high demand for and the high prices of these products, a market developed for counterfeit (illegally replicated) The North Face goods. Sold on eBay or in other unregulated venues, counterfeits can usually be detected by their misplacement of logos and obvious inferiority of craftsmanship. In addition to this, many counterfeit The North Face products are not made of Gore-Tex or HyVent, despite being so marked.[citation needed]

For the same reasons that The North Face products are counterfeited, they are also prime targets for theft. In early 2005, a group of teenagers from Washington D.C. were arrested on charges including the armed robbery of specifically The North Face jackets from randomly picked students on the street.[6] Allegedly, the thieves would then resell the products for a substantially decreased price.

The massive counterfeiting has prompted the creation of a website with information for consumers intending to purchase North Face items online in 2004.[7] In August 2007, Businessweek interviewed the owner and featured the site in one of their articles.[8]

Stores

The North Face hiking shoe.

In addition to selling through outdoor retailers, The North Face operates 43 retail locations in the United States (as of November 2010), and additional retail locations can be found worldwide. [9]

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The North Face — The North Face, Inc. Lema Never Stop Exploring Tipo Subsidiaria Fundación 1968 Sede San Leandro, CA …   Wikipedia Español

  • The North Face — The North Face, Inc. Тип Subsidiary Год основания 1968 Расположение San Leandro, CA Отрасль торговля …   Википедия

  • The north face — The North Face, Inc. Год основания 1968 Тип Subsidiary Девиз компании Never Stop Exploring Расположение San Leandro, CA Отрасль торговля …   Википедия

  • The North Face — Logo de The North Face Création 1968 Fondateurs Douglas Tompkins …   Wikipédia en Français

  • The North Face — Logo von The North Face Softshell und …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • The North Face —    An outdoor products manufacturing company that was founded in San Francisco s North Beach district as a small mountaineering shop in 1966 by American Doug Tompkins. Initially it offered only backpacking and climbing equipment but, in 1968,… …   Historical Dictionary of the Fashion Industry

  • The North Face Inn — (Покхара,Непал) Категория отеля: Адрес: Lalupate Marg, Lakeside, Kaski, 006 Покх …   Каталог отелей

  • The North Face (disambiguation) — The North Face can refer to:*The North Face a company that produces outdoor clothing.*The North Face (novel) a novel by Mary Renault …   Wikipedia

  • The North Face (novel) — The North Face is a 1948 heterosexual romance novel by Mary Renault, who later became famous for historical novels set in ancient Greece and featuring homosexual love between male characters. The protagonists are Neil Langston and Ellie, both of… …   Wikipedia

  • North Face (film) — North Face Directed by Philipp Stölzl Produced by Boris Schönfelder Danny Krausz Benjamin Herrmann Written by Christoph Silber, Rupert Henning, Johannes Naber, Phillip Stölzl …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”