The New Explorers
by The North Face
The New Explorers brought The North Face's belief in "Never Stop Exploring" to the city, with streetwear drops and live experiences across New York's outer boroughs. Each one was hosted by a local artist, previewed the latest collection in a space designed around it, and ended with a performance for fans and the creative community. Every drop sold out, and the brand built its own community of young New Yorkers exploring their city.
Campaign Idea
Along with its tagline Never Stop Exploring, The North Face's brand purpose is to lead the world forward through exploration. In a quest to scale beyond their outdoors community to include creative urban dwellers, we broadened The North Face’s definition of exploration to include the inspiration artists draw from the city. The New Explorers was created; a platform for artists to share what inspires them about the city and its impact on their creative process.
Talent Selection
Selecting artists with authentic connections to their communities was critical. Our approach was simple — identify those whose music had a new sound, and is clearly inspired by their surroundings. Every artist was also selected as a consultant on the products being launched, getting their unique POV on their design and colors, and how to position them. The campaign kicked off in New York City with Pi’erre Bourne, Princess Nokia, and 070 Shake.
Location Scouting & Spatial Design
Because New Explorers is anchored in the spirit of exploration, we scouted locations outside of the usual beaten path for streetwear events. Spatial design also played a strategic role as the artist performances were complemented by product displays nearby. We collaborated with Ben Willett to create spaces that served as shrines for the drops. Each event evoked the color ways and stories of the featured products being dropped, creating a multi-sensory, immersive experience for the attendees.
Product Drops
Each event was at an undisclosed location and featured new gear being dropped with an accompanying artist performance. Local explorers traveled to these locations from across the city to celebrate the spirit of exploration, get an exclusive in-person preview of the drop, and see the artists perform live. Each drop was sold out immediately, and this became the foundation to The North Face’s community growth strategy for cities.
Artist Documentaries
With every drop we created a short documentary of the artist and their relationship with the city, centering on their creative process and how its influenced by exploration of their art and their surroundings. Narrated by the artists, the films offer a small glimpse into the inspiration artists draw from the city, and how it’s an infinite source of inspiration for them. We also documented the artist appearances with photographers Anthony Peterson and Alex Pines.
Drop Promotions
Targeted OOH and Social were used to create buzz and intrigue for each event leading up to the drop. We then coordinated with streetwear and music media to preview the drops and build buzz even further. Days before each event, we revealed the artist that would be performing. This created a frenzy of conversation around the drop and the artist’s involvement, and on the day of the drop we released the event’s address to the attendees, maximizing reach.
Redefining exploration as a state of mind.
Outline:
New Explorers is a campaign of apparel drops & live experiences from The North Face, starting in New York City. Inspired by the brand’s heritage belief to “Never Stop Exploring” the experiences were held across New York’s outer boroughs, and hosted by local artists who manifest this belief through their music. Each experience featured previews of The North Face’s latest streetwear drops, showcased in specially designed spaces inspired by the collection, and culminated with exclusive performances by the artists for their fans and members of the creative community in attendance. The campaign ensured each drop sold out upon its release, while also building The North Face’s own unique community of young city dwellers who share a passion for exploring their surroundings.
Background:
The North Face has a heritage of being the explorer’s preferred brand for anything from apparel to accessories. However, starting in the 1990s its iconic Nuptse jacket also found a dedicated community of Hip Hop fans in cities across America, forever cementing its place in 90s streetwear style. And as that style has experienced a resurgence in popular culture, so too has demand for The North Face from a new generation of young city dwellers who share a passion for 90s culture and exploring new frontiers in art, culture, and the city itself.
Challenges:
As street style began to evolve past the 90s with new brands emerging, and a greater focus on collaborations, The North Face’s connection to youth culture and city life began to lose its foothold. Simultaneously, the brand also focused its messaging and brand building more on the outdoors, further distancing itself from street style. To re-enter the culture, The North Face would have to prove its commitment to embracing the communities that had shown it so much support throughout the last few decades. Not just a messaging campaign, but a true grass roots program that created products, spaces and experiences for young city dwellers and artists alike to commune and get the recognition they deserve.
Impact:
Featured products sold out within a week from release
17+ million impressions across Social, OOH, PR, and publishers
Press
High Snobiety → The North Face & Pi'erre Bourne celebrate the 1996 Retro Nuptse Jacket for fall
The Drum → The North Face celebrates exploration as a state of mind in ‘New Explorers’ campaign
Vibe → Princess Nokia and Scottie Beam make womanhood and Blackness their carbon footprint
EDM → The North Face expands its exploration campaign to include music
AList → The North Face launches music pop-ups in the name of exploration
PR Newswire → The North Face celebrates exploration as a state of mind in global campaign introducing “New Explorers”
Team
Brand → The North Face
Agency → Cornerstone (in-house agency for The Fader)
Client Team → Charly Araton, David Carrewyn, Olu Alege, Stephen Youngblade, Tim Sedo, Tom Herbst
Photographers → Alex Pines, Anthony Peterson, Ethan Holland
Spatial Designer → Ben Willett
Agency Team → David Rosenfeld, Fati Jafri, Grace Gordon, Hannah Lo Bello, Isa Berland, Jon Cohen, Leila Ibrahim, Marissa Monforton, Morgan Steiker, Robert English, Scott Perry, Shaung Wan, Steve Caputo