The North Face is a fashion brand founded in 1966 by a couple Douglas and Suise Tompkins in San Francisco, California. The North Face was originally a retail store specializing in mountaineering equipment that started with a $5,000 loan. A few years later, the two decided The North Face wouldn’t just stop selling other brands’ products, and they started producing some of their own designs for their brainchild. After 4 years since its founding, The North Face was acquired by Kenneth Klopp, marking a golden age that lasted many years later. The most famous is the Geo Dome camping tent model launched in 1975 – Considered as the standard for outdoor tents at that time. Today, readers, let’s go back to the 90s with Storepc to find out why this fashion brand is so influential!
Why The North Face?
The North Face means North of the Mountains. This is an area that normally gets less sunlight, which means it’s also colder, and the snow is less likely to melt. And these areas have long been where most athletes climb. Every mountain wants to conquer it. Therefore, the Tompkins and his wife took the name The North Face, which means that the spirit of resilience is not afraid of difficulties, ready to face all difficulties. About the company’s extremely legendary logo, this is an image inspired by a real mountain called Half Dom of the Yosemite Park range, located in the state of California, USA.
The charm between Hip Hop and The North Face
During the 90s, The North Face to assert its position in the fashion industry when it was attached to Hip Hop culture. From the very beginning, the Tompkins family positioned the store to make only high-quality items. The North Face clothing always has a price that compared to competitors is quite expensive. But that was not an obstacle, it was also iconic for the company at that time. They always made extremely high-quality items that everyone in the Hip Hop world wanted to own at that time. The North Face was seen as a style icon at the time, especially among New Yorkers. Anyone who could own an item from The North Face could be considered a “player” in those days, just as it is possible to own a hypebeast item today.
The 90s were also the heyday of Hip Hop and The North Face benefited radically from this massive cultural wave. The character who contributed to bringing The North Face into Hip Hop is none other than the legendary rapper Notorious Big – also known as Biggie Small, the symbol of American East Coast rap. In the rap song “Dead Wrong,” Biggie rhymes a line: “Take her Gucci bag and the north face off her back”. And with his influence, a single rap line is enough to make people frantically search for what The North Face is that appears in Biggie’s lyrics. Many times after that, he was also seen wearing shirts from the company, making The North Face even more famous.
Impressive collabs with the big guys in the Streetwear world
The North Face x Supreme
The most popular is the north face x supreme. Many say that the handshake with supreme is the biggest hit marking The North Face’s entry into the world of street fashion. The above opinion is also partly true, because the author himself first learned about the north face thanks to this collaboration. The two have gone through many seasons together and so far there are no signs of cooling down. The last time to mention is the new SS22 launched earlier this year.
The North Face x Gucci
Who says climbing can’t be stylish and expensive? Gucci and The North Face have brushed aside this prejudice. Since joining hands in this game, the two have had 2 collections together. In which, the most recent collection was presented by Tran Thanh on Street Dance Vietnam recently.
The North Face x Timberland
The North Face and Timberland can be said to be the locomotives in the fashion of New York City. In 2017, the two had their first collab. Seeing the Logos of these two legends appear on the same item is something extremely emotional for those who are hard fans of fashion.
Read more: Official images of the KAWS and The North Face collaboration
What’s so special about the retro sneaker that attracts so many fashionistas?