I won a couple of hundred quids worth of North Face vouchers and went into one of their stores in Carnaby Street, London the other day.

I know the brand has been getting a little bit less ‘performance’ related, but it seems it has just become a seriously **** clothes shop now. The shop was full of the kind of people who queue for hours to buy “supreme” caps, and who collect limited edition jackets etc. Their branch in Oxford Circus wasn’t any better; very little in the way of actual outdoor kit.

Very little of their higher end stuff seems to be stocked; its all available online but impossible to try on.

As Donald Trump would say: “sad”

Carnaby Street and Oxford Circus?

There’s your problem.

Go to Ellis Brigham or Snow and Rock in CG and you’ll find their proper stuff. Or their store just off Victoria Street.

(Oh crap. I’m defending TNF!)

Maybe try shopping in a less ‘trendy’ area?
Still plenty performance stuff in their ranges – love my summit series softshell and down jacket.
Can’t imagine much call for performance outdoor gear by average carnaby st shopper. Shocker but maybe they target stock at clientele likely be there rather than people in the lake districts? – novel retail approach 🙂

Go to any Blacks store, they seem to have a large range of NF kit.

Maybe try a shop that ISN’T in an area catering to the stereotype of people you decribe with such disdain too.

I don’t really rate NF kit btw but your rant is a bit misplaced imho.

Well, these people do need to have the right gear to wear for their next trip to Aldi

I find the way to sort through tnf gear is….

Big logo – fashion ranges shouting at everyone your wearing tnf….

Small logos. Probably technical gear.

I had this argument with a friend who works in the industry (and briefly for NF) He pointed out that the kind of person who comes into a shop on the high street looking for out door gear is mostly looking for it for dog walking, an up coming holiday to somewhere hostile (scotland) or to look cool whilst feeling warm. Very few people think “I might climb everest next week, I”ll pop into millets and get some kit now”

They had some decent kit st their newish Bicester store yesterday

Yeah you went to the fashion area target audience of London types to walk Benson.

As mentioned above more to do with the shop and location. TNF still make good performance kit but the location of the shop you went to sells more to this

Than they do to this

In the end they are a brand who wants to make money and fasion sales out weigh technical any day.

Have you met climbers they are tight arses.

The shop was full of the kind of people who queue for hours to buy “supreme” caps, and who collect limited edition jackets etc.

I have no idea what this means but it makes the op sound like a right stuck up arsehole.

They have a pretty broad range now, now surprised their Oxford / Carnaby Street stores are targeting a different audience.

I actually quite like some of their non-outdoor-person ranges, have one of their parkas for my commute. Super warm, waterproof and breathable but doesn’t leave me looking like a mid-life-crisis snowboarder with work trousers / shoes. 😀

I didn’t realise North face made gear for serious outdoor use.

Tended to regard them as an overpriced BSO of outdoor gear.

They’re owned by a huge corporation, a mate who used to work for them high up said they were under enormous pressure to return year on year sales growth. They can make excellent technical kit, the limited edition Summit Series stuff is proper top-end mountaineering gear and as good or better as anything else out there, but it’s a tiny fraction of their overall turnover and essentially just a way of underlining their technical credentials. Commercial reality I’m afraid and presumably they’ve made a careful decision to stock stuff that sells in those particular locations.

Can you redeem the vouchers online?

Their Summit & Mountain Athletics ranges are good.
The Glasgow shop is always nice for a mooch, but the TNF concession in Ellis Brigham in Aviemore is where I get most of my TNF stuff. They have decent eco credentials too iirc.

Yep, their Steep Series ski kit is ace. I’ve got a decent Gore-Tex Pro jacket which I absolutely love.

When decathlon opened in Crawley my brother was worried that all the chavs would cheapen the brand by starting to wear Quecha.

When decathlon opened in Crawley my brother was worried that all the chavs would cheapen the brand by starting to wear Quecha.

😆

I didn’t realise North face made gear for serious outdoor use.

Tended to regard them as an overpriced BSO of outdoor gear.

They made plenty of good stuff a few years back. I was wearing my 20 yr old windstopper fleece only this morning. Still going strong.

I didn’t realise North face made gear for serious outdoor use.

Tended to regard them as an overpriced BSO of outdoor gear.

Of course they do but as mentioned they make fashion too to help maintaint profits.

Glenmore Lodge use TNF kit and the instructors I’ve spoken to really rate it

It always makes me laugh when you see Munich’s residents sitting on the tube going to their desk job at BMW, Siemens or some such wearing their native North Face or Salewa jackets knowing full well the most extreme thing they have to contend with is waiting in the lift queue when skiing.

Saint that, I’ve a few bits of NF kit that I really like.

A baseball cap that dries quickly and doesn’t suffer from sweaty salt strains. Good for riding up on hot days. Got that at some outlet store for £15.

Another is my rain jacket. It’s stretchy and move with you, is totally waterproof and I tend not to suffer the boil-in-the-bag effect. Again, bought at not full RRP.

oh, and I’ve got one of their duffel bags. Bought as I need something quickly and again, not at original price.

When decathlon opened in Crawley my brother was worried that all the chavs would cheapen the brand by starting to wear Quecha.

Recently needed a fleece. Went to Blacks (or whatever is now called) and looked at NF plus some other brands. 120 for a fleece!?
Went to Decathlon and found one for £20 and have hardly store wearing it. Great kit for the money. Have found their mesh cycling shorts great for not-so-clamy arse cheeks in summer.

Have you met climbers they are tight arses.

The ironing! On a cyclists forum too. 😀

Generally it used to be (not sure now) but TNF ‘’Summit series’ used to be decent stuff

Generally it used to be (not sure now) but TNF ‘’Summit series’ used to be decent stuff

Still is. The entire Whistler Blackcomb on mountain staff use TNF stuff. The ones I know like it.

They make properly stunning kids outdoor gear and the summit series kit is great. The rest is there to generate the big money. Best place to pick it up is in the outlets in biscter, York or Chester. Flagship stores are for the fashionistas.

Agree with the summit series comments. The annoying bit is if you go into a NF shop in North America, there are a whole pile of lines they don’t bring across here.

The latest basecamp holdals are brilliant and much of their stuff is well made decent quality. Who cares if some one wears it to work, everyone has to keep warm/dry and at least they’re outdoors walking.

The very first fleece jacket I bought was NF, I don’t think I’d seen one from anyone else at that time, must be around twenty-five to thirty years old now, a bit small and one of the knitted cuffs has worn through, but still in good nick, and I’ve got a Nuptse jacket and Nuptse gilet which are still in perfect condition after nearly twenty years, and a Windstopper fleece jacket that’s almost as old.
Back then, though, label snobs didn’t sneer at ‘ordinary’ folk wearing such gear while wandering around town, it was still the clothing of rufty-tufty outdoors adventurers who might climb Scafell Pike or Ben Nevis if there’s a threat of snow…

Aye north face have not really changed.

A brand that’s changed alot for the worse is Rab.

Same rules apply. The bigger their logo tends to mean the less useful the kit is.

I got a new from Santa. It’s a casual one rather than an outdoor one, champion for a pub jacket.

I rate the Montane kit. Great stuff and not a trendy fashion label…yet !!

Montane is brilliant stuff I buy it from their outlet.

Montane are what RAB used to be, before RAB were bought over.

I have a ~20 year old TNF Nuptse made with the shiny material, rolls into its own stash pocket. Has a usefull inner pocket as well. Has been used and abused beyond the call of duty and allthough looking quite scruffy is still doing its job well.
Contrast that jacket to a new Nuptse i bought a year or two ago and the new one is knowhere near as good, doesnt have a stash pocket, no inner pocket and the two side pockets are too far round the back to comfortably stick your hands in.

The North Face gear is what schoolkids around my area are “into” ie the next fashionable label to be seen wearing.
I went into the local JD Sports the other week and it was full of TNF fashion clothing.
They do still do “serious” outdoor gear, I got a jacket from Cotswolds a few years ago, best jacket I’ve ever had!
Just another “label” that has diversified to chase profits.

I know somebody who used to be UK marketing manager for TNF – he used to point out that most of their sales were to people wanting something to wear on the high street. They still make some of the best tech kit, but it’s mostly for brand positioning, it’s not where they make their money (I still have a load of TNF kit going strong from 2004 and earlier). It’s not a new thing either, was the case back then when I raced on their team.

RAB is the outdoor brand worn for fashion around our way. North Face is so last year :).

PMK2060 – Member
RAB is the outdoor brand worn for fashion around our way. North Face is so last year :).

Oh goodie! Does that mean I can tell my daughter I’m now officially fashionable?