The North Face reaffirms alpine heritage by kitting out adventurer Benjamin Védrines

Between a capsule collection with Danish designer Cecilie Bahnsen, the launch of a range of footwear and climbing slippers, and last Friday’s opening of its largest flagship store worldwide at 511 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, The North Face can at times appear removed from alpine ridges, the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and Himalayan summits. That’s a criticism regularly levelled by its long-standing customers and retailers, who continue to look to the snow-covered peaks. Hence, VF Corp’s flagship brand is working to maintain its connection to extreme pursuits.

The brand outfits several renowned adventurers and mountaineers with its AMK (Advanced Mountain Kit) collection. It has supported French mountaineer Benjamin Védrines in his 2024 expedition to climb K2 (8,611 metres), and is a partner of his film K2 Chasing Shadows, which was screened in mid-November at the Montagne en Scène festival. To mark the occasion, The North Face hosted a presentation of the film by Védrines, who is a high-mountain guide in the Hautes-Alpes, alongside updates to its AMK range for men and women, on the seventh floor of the Printemps Haussmann department store.

“We had already launched a version of the AMK kit in 2020,” explained Alicia Thin, the brand’s category merchandising director for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

“We have a team entirely dedicated to innovation, with specialists in our Stabio, Denver and Shanghai offices who collaborate with athletes to iterate prototypes based on their feedback. We work on three levels: the R&D arm explores all solutions that can meet athletes’ needs in mountaineering, skiing and climbing—in other words, our three verticals: Snow, Climb and Trail. AMK addresses needs in Snow and Climb. The team working with athletes has made the products even more hard-wearing, while also delivering lightness and packability. In Benjamin Védrines’ case, he needs equipment for a versatile approach and very fast movement in the mountains, as he did on K2.”

The space in the Paris department store, usually dedicated to second-hand offerings, gave pride of place to high-altitude imagery and features around a dozen textile pieces forming three-layer systems, in malachite green for men and crushed raspberry for women, fulfilling different functions and using expert materials and treatments. The brand highlights its in-house technologies with DotKnit as a base layer, FutureFleece for a light, warm fleece, and the Summit 50/50 hooded down jacket, which uses a box-baffle structure filled with its ProDown insulation. The waterproof and breathable jacket and trousers using FUTURELIGHT feature constructions suited to mountain pursuits, with gaiters, harness-compatible zipped thigh pockets and details engineered for durability. Finally, the imposing Cloud Down parka, which pairs with trousers, creates a final layer of thermal protection thanks to the use of Spectra fibres for greater resistance. An igloo tent and a range of accessories, including a sleeping bag and technical backpacks of various litre capacities, are also featured.

“Spectra fibre is an example of how we continue to strengthen our products. After the first kit, we realised we needed to push durability further. This range is like a Formula 1 concept car. We’re always looking to push innovation further. And this range was designed for women. We wanted to build products truly around the needs of female athletes. For each product, we tested an average of five prototypes. And even if a few items, such as a DotKnit Wool sports bra, were not brought to market, most are now on sale. So the consumer ultimately decides how they will use them.”

Ultimately, whether occasional athletes or urban customers, everyone can be inspired by this world. They are, however, looking for more mainstream versions: more accessible products with fewer technical details or fewer combined features.

“At The North Face, the idea is to launch technologies, commercialise them, and see how they evolve—then roll them out across the ranges. Sometimes, as with FutureLight, we can bring these solutions into a more accessible offer in less than two years. Working upstream with integrated R&D allows us, for example, to have DotKnit Wool for performance, but also a simpler DotKnit for the trail-running range. For a less performance-focused consumer, it’s not necessarily about adapting the technology, but also about reworking the details or the cuts of some of the most technical products.”

The AMK collection is distributed in The North Face stores worldwide, including Chamonix, as well as online and through key retailers such as Au Vieux Campeur in France and Schuster in Germany. Unlike collaborations with very tight release windows, this line is intended to remain in the brand’s range for several seasons.