NORTH FACE URBAN EXPLORER JACKET FULL

This balance becomes especially important as the urban environment grows increasingly challenging - but unfortunately for some shoppers, Urban Exploration, like TNF’s Purple Label, is regionally limited. In contrast to TNF’s mountaineering roots, Urban Exploration is exclusively designed with non-climbers in mind, focusing instead on the middle ground between practicality and shape. Designed with both style and lifestyle in mind, the new “Urban Ecology” capsule offers items that are ultra-lightweight, moisture-wicking, and water-repellent. Per its name, the sublabel delivers pieces that seamlessly transition from the mountains to the paved city streets. The reissues are available today in “extremely limited” quantities at the San Francisco shop, but will be sold online and at the 5th Avenue location beginning October 13.The North Face Urban Exploration has been on the functional fashion wave since its debut. Made entirely in the U.S., The North Face worked with a third-generation factory in Chicago and the Horween Leather Co., one of the oldest tanneries in the U.S., to bring back its Original Daypacks and Soft Duffel throwback bags. New merchandise will be brought into the store regularly in the coming months, including collaborations and curated pieces from the brand’s Japanese and Hong Kong collections.Īlso celebrating the brand’s 50 th anniversary in 2016, the shop will feature the return of some of the first packs sewn and sold at the company’s original location.

NORTH FACE URBAN EXPLORER JACKET FULL

The Jackson Square store will enable The North Face to showcase its full fashion range. The brand has also been successfully collaborating with streetwear label Supreme since 2007. In the U.S., The North Face brand, along with a number of other utilitarian brands such as Carhartt, Helly Hansen and Timberland, could be seen on rappers in videos from the 90’s helping the brand establish its foothold as a staple of urban cool.

In Europe, The North Face earlier this year launched a similar design-first and exclusive collection, Black Label, with a like approach to Purple Label. Building on Purple Label’s success, the brand has also been partnering with Japanese menswear designer Junya Watanabe since 2006. Exclusive to Japan and designed by Eiichiro Homa of cult-Japanese outerwear label Nanamica, the collection continues to draw legions of fans to its bold colorways and floral-camo prints. The brand’s fashion reach can be most readily seen in Japan with the fashion-forward sub-brand Purple Label, first launched in 2003. and Europe, “but bringing a really interesting Asian flair coming out of Japan and China.” On the call, Rendle, who will take over as VF Corp.’s CEO at the close of the year, describes Urban Exploration as a merging of “what’s already a good city expression” in the U.S. He added, “What you’ll also see is real thoughtful line segmentation covering those key price points in those key categories for those channel partners that we do business with across the globe.”Īmong the new business units, the biggest shift from the brand’s outdoor and ski roots and its classic Denali jacket is Urban Exploration. On the company’s second-quarter 2016 conference call, Steve Rendle, president and COO of VF Corp., said the four business units will give The North Face leverage to reach higher price points. The four units are Mountain Sports, the brand’s heritage approach featuring its most technical gear Mountain Culture, more of an outdoor lifestyle approach Mountain Athletics, its training category and Urban Exploration, which aims at the outdoorsy city resident.

The opening arrives as The North Face earlier this year reset the business around four specific consumer usage occasions, or four new business units. The North Face said the concept shop “will be devoted to protective gear suitable for the modern urbanite.” Taken together, that embrace of the outdoor lifestyle has been marked by the popularity of brands such as Canada Goose, Arc’teryx and Fjällräven as well as The North Face in metropolitan cities. Case in point, the rise of the so-called “urban adventuring” and other outdoor activities in the heart of U.S. City dwellers are also looking for more urban-outdoor adventures closer to home on the weekends. The stores speak to the growing trend of consumers wanting to tackle the outdoor aspects of their city lives with similar performance benefits from their technical outdoor gear. A similar space will be featured within The North Face New York Flagship store opening on 5th Avenue later this month. The recently opened temporary shop, in the Jackson Square neighborhood, focuses exclusively on the label’s streetwear collection. The merging of outdoor and urban worlds is on full display at The North Face’s first Urban Exploration store in San Francisco.

North face urban explorer jacket