The North Face Are Everything They Set Out Not to Be
Fairly recently, I came across a story which I realised is the reason why I really quite hate North Face puffer jackets. In the ‘60s, Doug Tompkins and Yvon Chouinard met to discuss a business deal. Nothing came of this meeting, yet it was more significant than it may have first appeared. The two gentlemen shared a passion for everything outdoors, from the vast environments to a desire for adventure. tompkins and Chouinard would go on to found The North Face and Patagonia, respectively, with the mission of making trustworthy and efficient gear to support their love for outdoor explanation and anyone else who also shared it.
Tompkins and Chouinard created their respective businesses, which would each become behemoths in their fields and remain worldwide household names to this day. But the paths of each company would soon diverge significantly— Tompkins sold The North Face for $50,000 in 1966 and it quickly transformed into a $2,000,000,000 business over the next five decades, whereas Chouinard kept Patagonia private and grew it into a company which championed practicality and sustainability. This meant that whilst Patagonia was free to do what they wanted with their products, The North Face always walked a tightrope between profit and staying faithful to their founding principles– they wanted to stick to their morals, but always had to answer to the rich shareholders wanting to turn a profit.
One way The North Face’s public ownership runs counter to the brand’s original spirit is in the realm of sustainability. They sell a massive variety of clothing, from their streetwear collaborations with Supreme, to professional mountaineering equipment with a brand image centered around the outdoors. But it’s common knowledge among those keeping track that The North Face is never at the forefront of change or environmentally-minded innovation in their industry, but rather follow the lead of other companies. They’re a big, heavy company tying itself down in its hunt for profit like an elephant in quicksand while the less corporate, ethically-driven companies are not held down by the same constraints and can more easily experiment and innovate with their business practices.
In 2000, Patagonia became the first clothing company to start specialising in manufacturing certified by BlueSign, an accolade showing that they are aiming to minimise the harmful environmental effects that the production and distribution of clothing often has. The North Face didn’t follow suit until ten years later. In a similar example, Fjällräven and Patagonia both committed to only using “cruelty free” down in 2013, with The North Face lagging a year behind.
So whilst The North Face may be riding the wave toward more sustainable business, they’re not innovating and discovering new techniques themselves, but rather waiting on others to put the front foot forward and prove viability of new practices. And whilst this criticism may seem harsh, it’s clear to see that this is a result of their going public so early in the company’s history, as the cost of innovating and researching new technologies to reduce their environmental impact outweighs the profits such measures will bring in. So, bound to what proved to be a faustian pact back in the ‘60s, decision makers must answer to the shareholders who fund the business and rightly expect returns on their investment.
The North Face is not what it set out to be, but the opposite. It was founded on morals of utility, sustainability, and adventure, and it is veering further and further away from these principles as time goes on. It has constantly, since going public, found itself fighting internal conflicts: should the utility of the company be for consumers or the shareholders; should their priority be profit or the environment; and should they venture into innovating practices that can change the industry, or just follow suit of other companies that are making waves ahead of them? Now, sadly, they are stuck in a rut, and find themselves being unadventurous in design and noncompetitive in price. Comparing their roots being completely immersed in exploration and the love of adventure with the present state of the industrial titan that is The North Face, one must question how true Tompkins has stayed to his original mission of using business to support his adoration for the outdoors.
