The North Face Launches Global Effort to Celebrate New Generation of Female Explorers

The North Face today launched a massive and first-ever global initiative focused on women, celebrating and sharing the stories of adventurous and courageous female explorers.

Move Mountains is rooted in empowering the next generation of explorers and includes a multi-year outdoor adventure collaboration with Girls Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), a platform for sharing more stories of women in exploration, and a business commitment that impacts everything from representation in advertising campaigns to investment in product design.

“We know better than anyone that there are plenty of women out there who are already accomplishing incredible, inspiring things every day. Yet women and girls don’t see themselves represented as ‘explorers’,” said Tom Herbst, global vice president of marketing at The North Face. “We had a simple theory that if women and girls see more role models in exploration, it will create more female role models for future generations.”

The cornerstone of Move Mountains is celebrating stories of women who are pushing boundaries, including The North Face athletes, alpinist Hilaree Nelson, climbing phenoms Ashima Shiraishi and Margo Hayes, and ultrarunner and activist Fernanda Maciel, in a series of short films narrated by fellow role models who admire them. The North Face is also featuring women who are explorers beyond physical exploration, like women’s empowerment advocate America Ferrera, NASA scientist Tierra Guinn Fletcher, and musician and activist Madame Gandhi.

In an effort to canvas the world with female explorers who are artists, athletes, educators and scientists, The North Face is making a commitment to equal representation of women in all advertising, social

media and content moving forward.

To help enable the next generation of women to push boundaries and move mountains, The North Face is announcing a multi-year outdoor adventure collaboration with GSUSA that includes support for the creation of 12 new Girl Scouts

outdoor adventure badges with programming ranging from mountaineering and climbing, to  backpacking, hiking and trail running for Girl Scouts throughout the United States.

“Girl Scouts has been blazing the trail for girls’ leadership in the outdoors for more than a century, and outdoor badges continue to be amongst the most popular category of badges our girls ask for,” said GSUSA CEO, Sylvia Acevedo. “We are excited to partner with The North Face to help girls challenge themselves, learn about the natural world, and continue the Girl Scout tradition of having life-changing outdoor experiences. Our research shows outdoor experiences are part of fostering leadership skills in girls. This new programming inspires them to create their own outdoor adventures and develop critical leadership skills that prepare them for a lifetime of exploration and success.”

To launch the partnership, The North Face is joining with America Ferrera, Girl Scout alum and women’s empowerment advocate, to increase visibility of role models for girls and encourage them to explore - both outdoors and beyond - in their everyday lives.

“The time is now to begin levelling the playing field so that young women and girls grow up seeing women who are already out doing incredible things in the world,” said Ferrera. “I have no doubt women have been doing it for generations, but those stories don’t tend to get told. Which is why I am proud to partner with an iconic brand like The North Face, to bring resources and increased visibility of female role models to young women and help the next generation see what’s possible. ”

The North Face is also applying the spirit of Move Mountains to its internal business - with an increased investment in women’s product design, renewed focus on employee development and ensured closure of the gender pay gap on the athlete team.

In the US, The North Face is expanding the focus of the Explore Fund Grants program to $750,000, with a new $250,000 grant program focused on enabling female exploration. This new annual grant program will honor Ann Krcik, who was a long-time leader at The North Face and one of the founders of the Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition (now Camber Outdoors). The Explore Fund was founded in 2010 and has given $2.75 million to over 500 nonprofits in support of furthering outdoor exploration.

The company is also expanding its women’s product offerings, beginning with bottoms, which the brand is reinventing through compression, core support and vision science. New styles and silhouettes will be available this month in-store and online. Key pieces include the Perfect Core High-Rise Tight, Contoured Tech High-Rise Tight, and Beyond the Wall Free Motion Bra.

The North Face will open two women-specific stores in 2018. The first, located in Edina, MN, will focus on the brand’s running and training apparel. The second women’s store will be located in San Francisco, CA and carry all women’s product lines, including running and training gear, mountain and urban focused products.

Launching today, the integrate campaign includes aspiring video content to OOH and social activations that underlines the uniqueness of each ambassadors and insight into their world of exploration