Is The North Face, with its recent sold-out collab with Kim Kardashian’s brand Skims, transforming into a luxury or fashion brand?
“Absolutely not,” said TNF Global Brand President Caroline Brown, formerly the CEO of Donna Karan International and DKNY, at parent company VF Corp.’s Investor Day presentations on Thursday morning. “We are built for exploration, and it’s that heritage that we will stay true to and grow from.”
But it will continue to appeal to a broad spectrum of consumers as it aims to double its apparel business, which makes up the bulk of its sales. The brand will also double its equipment and bag business and triple its footwear business, Brown said, as she laid out the brand’s go-forward plan.
TNF is one of the stronger brands in VF’s portfolio. The brand’s revenue increased by 5% year-over-year to $1.25 billion in the third quarter ended Dec. 28, with revenue growth reported in every region. TNF has 7,000 points of distribution, more than 6,000 employees, and produces more than 80 million products per year, Brown said.
“But looking ahead, our ambitions are far bigger,” she said. “Our brand is strong. It can be even larger, and we are moving quickly to set ourselves up for that growth.”
In addition to appealing to a broad range of consumers, TNF’s plan includes:
- Editing its product platform while improving quality and expanding into head-to-toe offerings within each platform.
- Modernizing marketing with select collaborations such as its ski collection with Skims and featuring athletes, influencers, and celebrities.
- Refurbishing and growing retail to bring a consistent brand message across all distribution points.
- Realigning and strengthening its culture and operations and leveraging the full scale of VF’s portfolio to manage supply chains and maximize margins.
TNF has always been rooted in both performance and culture, Brown said, reminding the audience that The Grateful Dead performed at the brand’s opening party in San Francisco in 1966. TNF will continue that tradition, attracting both performance-driven consumers who wear the brand for outdoor recreation, and the larger segment of performance-inspired lifestyle consumers who wear it in more urban settings, she said.
“This reach from one extreme to another is rare, and it is one of our biggest assets,” Brown said, adding that the full spectrum of consumers has an addressable market of more than $200 billion. “We have a solid foothold on both edges of this brand, and it is this balance that makes us the biggest, yet still offers room to grow between these edges.”
North Face President Caroline Brown during her presentation at VF Corp.’s Investor Day. Photo courtesy of VF Corp.
An Edited Product Platform with Head-to-Toe Offerings
TNF’s product teams have been reorganized from three disparate teams to one clear global center, Brown said. Design, merchandising, and development functions have been elevated to the leadership team, which will improve performance.
TNF is making five significant changes to how it approaches product, Brown said:
- TNF is editing its product platform from more than 20 categories to three: snow, climb, and trail. Those are the brand’s most successful, authentic segments, and all three appeal to the full spectrum its consumers. By focusing on these segments, TNF won’t dilute the brand and will free up resources to drive growth in more productive areas, Brown said.
- TNF is elevating all areas of product, from design and price to value relationship, materials, and quality.
- TNF has established a new line architecture to create full head-to-toe collections, which will compel consumers to buy more than one item. Many consumers buy one piece of outerwear, for example, and won’t need another one for years to come. But they may complement that purchase with another item, such as tops, bottoms, layers, and accessories.
- Product teams are building a new creative design language that will pull from TNF’s heritage, such as color blocking elements, recognizable silhouettes, and hardware inspired by mountain gear.
- TNF is sharpening its product franchise management. Franchises currently include the Nuptse jacket, the Mountain jacket, the Denali fleece, and the Himalayan. “We are actively working to expand these franchises further, and we are currently remastering them for upcoming seasons and continuing to push innovation and design elevation for each one with the established icons in place,” Brown said. “We are also working to build new franchises for the future, securing important growth levers for years to come.”
TNF’s sharpened design language will become more apparent in the brand’s bags, and the brand’s equipment designers aim to make the outdoors more accessible to people of all abilities through universal design.
The North Face’s key outerwear franchises include the Nuptse, Mountain, Himalayan, and Denali. Screenshot of VF Corp.’s Investor Day on March 6.
TNF’s relatively new focus on footwear is paying off, Brown said, and there’s strong momentum behind franchises such as the Verto and the Glenclyffe lines. TNF’s signature down slippers have moved from performance into the mainstream and are appearing more frequently on busy city streets, Brown said.
Intellectual property and innovation will remain a priority at TNF, Brown said, which can make a life-saving difference to athletes in harsh conditions.
“We plan to further fuel innovation with a key focus on three areas – element protection, moisture management, movement enhancement – to keep our explorers protected, comfortable, and at their peak performance,” Brown said.
Building on Skims Collab, Modernizing Marketing
The success of TNF’s recent Skims collaboration proves how selective partnerships can bring the brand to new consumers and drive brand heat, Brown said.
The collab was marketed with images of TNF athletes wearing the limited-edition ski collection, and was seeded to celebrities and influencers as well, combining performance with lifestyle.
“The results show the power of this influencer-focused strategy, with over 10 billion impressions and selling out in all key markets in a matter of hours,” Brown said. “Equally important, this collaboration shows the demand for product from The North Face that combines performance and style in a new way for women. (There is) lots more opportunity as we develop this further as well.”
TNF is modernizing its marketing efforts, Brown said, citing the brand’s Mountain jacket’s 40th anniversary campaign. It blended its mountaineering heritage with cultural relevance, creating visibility online, in stores, and across digital channels with both user-generated content made by influencers and brand content featuring athletes and pop stars.
TNF will also double down on its athlete team, which tests new innovations in extreme conditions and provides input to technical designers.
“They inspire us internally every day, and we are going to bring these experiences to life in our stores and on our digital platforms in a completely new way,” Brown said.
North Face President Caroline Brown. Photo courtesy of VF Corp.
Marketplace Culture and Operations
TNF stores are being refurbished to ensure there’s a consistent brand message across its distribution points, and the brand will experiment with new concepts and open both owned and partner retail locations, Brown said.
TNF will open new flagships in New York and Shanghai this year, and its London flagship on Regent Street was recently remodeled. In ecommerce, TNF will feature more dynamic content that has been digitally enhanced with AI, Brown said.
Finally, TNF is strengthening its culture and operations, Brown said. Teams have been realigned, new technologies have been implemented to support them, and core processes have been standardized. The full scale of VF’s group of brands is now being used for supply chain negotiation and margin enhancement, she said, which will give TNF a competitive advantage.
“We are putting more power behind this brand and building consistent execution across all consumer touchpoints and investing in a completely new way on culture and operations,” Brown concluded. “We are strengthening our culture and operational core with our new global leadership team organizational realignments across the globe and leveraging VF’s scale for competitive advantage.”
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
