The North Face: A social phenomenon
by Jen Gage
December 2, 2006

North Face jackets have officially taken over the Virginia Tech community surpassing even the ever-popular Ugg boot, (this is probably due more to the fact that men can wear North Face jackets, but Uggs tend to be strictly women’s footwear).

In previous years, North Face products (mostly their ever popular “Denali” jacket and backpacks) were used most heavily by Greek students and students who actually participate in outdoor activities like climbing and camping. Since fashion trends are about six years late coming to our campus, we are finally seeing the North Face phenomena hit here like it has on every other college campus in America. So now you can’t walk five feet without seeing a North Face logo in your face.

So the question is, what makes the North Face so popular? I mean, it’s just high quality camping gear. So in order to get to the bottom of the matter I did some research.

According to Wikipedia, North Face’s popularity significantly increased after being worn in hip-hop videos in the late 1990s. Once the North Face brand gained status as a “cool” brand in urban settings, specifically in places like Washington, D.C and New York City, the college and high school students followed and apparently now everyone else has too.

Along with being trendy, North Face jackets are functional keeping the wearer warm during winter weather. The Denali is constructed from Polartec 300 weight fleece in combination with 2-ply nylon to give the jacket added moisture and wind protection (www.thenorthface.com).

However, North Face hasn’t just taken over college campuses, it has also taken over the 50 and under crowd. When I was home in DC over our recent break, seemingly every baby boomer and their kid was outfitted in Denali jackets.

North Face jackets are actually so popular that they are a motivation for crime in and around the metropolitan DC area, and according to Silver Chips Online, a high school newspaper in Maryland, high school kids would actually throw bleach in people’s faces in order to conceal their identity and rob the wearer of their North Face jacket (http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/inside.php?sid=4766).

Also in 2005 and another indicator of the Denali and North Face’s fame in DC were the series of robberies and assaults committed by a group of teens over North Face jackets (http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20050214-104619-4377r.htm).

If you can get shot for owning it, it’s probably a covetable item, even so when I heard last year that you could get assaulted for owning a North Face jacket, whatever magic appeal it had held was no more.