The North Face asks customers for their jacket stories

A brand history written by its customers

In October 2021, The North Face marks more than 55 years since its founding with a campaign called "It's More Than a Jacket". At its centre is what the brand describes as its first-ever crowdsourced digital archive: customers, athletes and musicians are invited to submit stories and photographs of the North Face products that have accompanied them.¹ Contributions are gathered on social media under the hashtag #MoreThanAJacket.¹

The archive is built with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the city where the brand opened its first shop in 1966.^2,3 A 60-second film introduces the idea, and three longer films follow the adaptive athlete Vasu Sojitra, the freestyle skier Jossi Wells and the expedition leader Will Stegar.²

The customer as author

An anniversary is usually told from the inside: the founding, the first products, the famous expeditions. The North Face's own history page is written that way.³ This campaign reverses the direction. The brand supplies the platform and the museum partner, and the people who wore its products supply the content.

Mike Ferris, vice president of global brand at The North Face, framed the archive in those terms: "Our customers, the feats they have achieved, and the memories they have created are such a big part of our brand's rich DNA." He described its purpose: "With this archive, we are memorializing the people, products and stories that continue to inspire our community and move the world forward."¹

The phrase "rich DNA" carries the argument. A brand's identity is usually defined by what it makes and claims. Here The North Face locates part of its identity in what customers did with its products, a source of meaning that sits with the people who wore the products.

Different stories, one jacket

The first contributors span a wide range. The athletes Conrad Anker and Ingrid Backstrom represent the mountain. The musicians RZA and HAIM represent the city and the road.¹

RZA's contribution speaks directly to the brand's New York history: "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."¹ HAIM described their jackets as having "become more than a source of function".¹

RZA's word "witness" gives the campaign its sharpest formulation. A witness is present at events without causing them. In his account, the jacket did not make the 1990s in New York; it was there, and it carries the memory. It is a claim the brand could not credibly make about itself; it has to come from someone else. When The North Face lets RZA say it, the city chapter of its history, which the brand did not plan, enters its official story in the words of the people who wrote it.

From archive to loyalty

The campaign is also built to work commercially. Members of XPLR Pass, the brand's loyalty programme, are engaged before the wider launch, and a Twitter Promoted Trend extends its reach, adding 72 million incremental impressions and an 18-fold spike in brand mentions.⁴ The Shorty Awards entry reports more than 6,200 posts with the hashtag, 14 million organic impressions, 3.9 million social interactions and 97 percent positive sentiment, and the campaign wins a Bronze Honor in User-Generated Content.⁴

The format turns the anniversary into a loyalty mechanism. Each post is both a memory and a public statement of attachment to the brand, and it becomes material in a museum-backed collection. The North Face gains a body of testimony far larger than any campaign could produce, and the participants gain a place in the brand's history.

Product follows the stories. Six collections are scheduled to release through early December 2021, and participatory programmes with the museum are planned for 2022.² The archive therefore works as the emotional frame for a season of launches: the stories explain why the jackets matter, and the new collections sit alongside them.

The campaign travels beyond its launch markets. In May 2022 it reaches Australia and New Zealand with local musicians and creatives, including Barkaa, B Wise and YO! Mafia, alongside the freestyle skier Janina Kuzma.⁵ The ANZ phase also introduces a Nuptse made from 100 percent recycled fabrics.⁵

"It's More Than a Jacket" changes who holds the pen. After 55 years of telling its own story, The North Face invites its customers to tell it, and in doing so it defines its products less by what they are made of than by what they have been through.