The North Face has launched its “Move Mountains” initiative—the brand’s first global campaign devoted to women and young girls.
Move Mountains includes a series of videos that highlight females who are leading in their respective fields. The spots, which will air online and across social channels, feature rock climbers Ashima Shiraishi and Margo Hayes, endurance runner Fernanda Maciel, mountain climber Hilaree Nelson and aerospace engineer Tiera Fletcher.
The North Face will take over the National Geographic Instagram account this week to highlight female explorers, and Fletcher’s work to send rockets to Mars represents a different side to that idea.
Tom Herbst, global vice president of marketing for The North Face, told AlistDaily that given the current cultural context, it was a good time for a campaign devoted to women explorers. “Part of this campaign is to tell their stories and open opportunity for all women to set lofty goals and meet them and challenge themselves,” said Herbst. “It’s not always just [about] physical element of exploration, but also the mental emotional and cultural aspect as well.”
The North Face has partnered with Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) to create a new set of curriculum that includes 12 new outdoor adventure badges ranging from mountaineering to trail running. While The North Face has partnered with GSUSA in the past, this is a “much larger” program.
“We feel like we have both a responsibility and an opportunity to introduce as many people as possible to a life lived outdoors and a life of exploration,” said Herbst.
Two new stores will open this year, each catered to the female demographic. The North Face location in Edina, MN will focus on running and training apparel, while a store in San Francisco will feature all women’s product lines from outdoor to urban products.
The brand will also ship its first-ever women-focused catalog to around 70,000 consumers.
The North Face is also looking inward, Herbst explained, focusing on employee development through a partnership with Paradigm for Parity Coalition.
“As we stepped back and looked at our brand, we know we’ve been doing a lot of the right things over the years in terms of supporting women in our organization but we feel like we could do even more,” said Herbst.
Nature is the great equalizer, he explained, and The North Face wants to reflect that philosophy in its brand message.
“We feel like there’s an opportunity to be much more inclusive within the outdoor industry. The outdoors treats everyone the same regardless of your background or what you look like.”
