The North Face Partners With San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art To Launch Brand’s First-Ever Digital Archive

 The North Face today announced the launch of its fall brand campaign, It’s More Than A Jacket, an initiative honoring and celebrating the memories and stories of adventure created over the brand’s more than 55-year history. To capture the meaning behind every piece of gear, The North Face is launching its first-ever crowdsourced digital archive, calling on explorers all over the world to submit stories and images of their own well-loved products to potentially be included in the official archive. 

As part of the campaign, The North Face is looking to its Northern California roots, partnering with fellow Bay Area icon and internationally recognized art museum the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) to bring the archive to life through a series of participatory programs at the museum in Fall 2022. The programs will feature exploration’s most historically significant designs and the stories behind them alongside everyday explorers’ submissions.

“For more than 55 years, The North Face has enabled exploration and helped people strive for greatness by providing the best gear to get them there,” said Mike Ferris, VP of Global Brand at The North Face. “Our customers, the feats they have achieved, and the memories they have created are such a big part of our brand’s rich DNA. With this archive, alongside SFMOMA, we are memorializing the people, products and stories that continue to inspire our community and move the world forward.”

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with the Bay Area-born The North Face to bring our community a wide range of unique and inspiring public programs” said Neal Benezra, Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA. “This partnership champions exploration, creative expression, and innovation that are critical to both of our organizations.”

 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States and a thriving cultural center for the Bay Area. Its remarkable collection of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design and media arts is housed in an LEED Gold-certified building designed by the global architects Snøhetta and Mario Botta. In addition to seven gallery floors, SFMOMA offers 45,000 square feet of free, art-filled public space open to all.

To launch It’s More Than A Jacket, The North Face is joining with cultural icons and artists RZA and HAIM alongside The North Face athlete team members Conrad Anker and Ingrid Backstrom to be the first explorers to submit to the archive this fall, drawing on connections from their past to write their stories of adventure into the brand’s history.

“As an artist, style has always been an expression of identity and a way to mark a moment in time,” said RZA. “In the 90s, not only was The North Face the rugged, stylish gear we needed on New York City’s streets, it was more than a jacket because it was a witness. It was a witness to the brotherhood that we were inspiring, and that inspired us. By entering this jacket into the archive, I get the chance to relive and preserve the memories lived in it forever.”

“For as long as we can remember, we’ve had a curiosity for the unknown and a love for the world around us,” said HAIM. “From experimenting with different rhythms and instrumentation to discovering a new style or city, exploration is a part of everything we do. Through these adventures, our jackets from The North Face have been with us along the way and have become more than a source of function; they’ve comforted us when we’re away from home and remind us of everywhere we’ve been.”

The campaign will come to life throughout the fall as The North Face introduces six new collections that all pay homage to the brand’s DNA, drawing inspiration from The North Face rich past to inspire and enable exploration in the future. Each collection speaks to The North Face mission to continue to inspire exploration and shows how every adventure can live on through gear: from bringing back the gear that outfitted the first-ever non-mechanized crossing of Antarctica in 1990 that drew global attention to the need for preservation of the continent to introducing the brand’s most iconic insulation piece - the Nuptse - now offered in a version made with 100% recycled fabrics.

It’s More Than A Jacket will launch with a feature anthem film that brings to life the idea that stories from the past are woven into every jacket. The brand will also debut three extended films throughout the fall featuring adaptive athlete Vasu Sojitra, freestyle skier Jossi Wells and leader of the 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition, Will Steger.

To contribute to the official archive and potentially appear in the SFMOMA experience, The North Face is calling on explorers everywhere to post to social media using the hashtag #MoreThanAJacket. Additional information and official terms around how It’s More Than A Jacket will come to life and the partnership with SFMOMA will be available throughout the fall and into 2022.