We care

In 2021, The North Face set an ambitious goal for 100% of our top materials (polyester, cotton and nylon) to be recycled, responsibly sourced, renewable or regeneratively grown by 2025 for apparel and by 2030 for footwear and equipment. We set this goal because most of our emissions generated to make our products come from manufacturing the materials they’re made of. We have made significant progress and while we didn’t reach our original target of 100% by the end of 2024, 95% of our polyester, 80% of our nylon and 45% of our cotton for apparel was recycled, responsibly sourced, renewable or regeneratively grown in 2024.
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We focus on Regenerative agriculture for natural fibers, and recycled content for synthetic fibers. For animal derived materials like down, our focus is on ensuring animal welfare.
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Our products with the highest share of preferred materials are tagged with Exploration Without Compromise hangtags, to inform consumers of their lower impact.
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The North Face is also committed to reducing the use of single-use plastic in our packaging and to transition away from the use of PFAS chemistry in our product range.

Responsible Down Standard

In 2014, we launched the Responsible Down Standard (RDS) in partnership with Textile Exchange and Control Union Certification, setting the standard for animal welfare in the industry. This includes prohibiting the live-plucking or force-feeding of animals. All the down sourced from farms into our supply chain is RDS certified, and this is always called out on product hangtags.

Regenerative Cotton and Rubber

‍Our regenerative materials come from farms focusing on restoring soil health and sequestering carbon into the soil. At the end of 2024, 45% of our cotton was regeneratively grown. This includes some material for our Back to School campaign for FW25! We’re also working with rubber farmers in Thailand on regenerative agroforestry, meaning they are growing rubber trees in regenerative agroforests with a diversity of crops instead of a mono-crop plantation. This rubber is used in our footwear, specifically in our Surface Control outsoles.

Recycled content

‍Reusing synthetic materials reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, and - in the case of polyester - gives used plastic containers a second life. At the end of 2024, 95% of our polyester and 80% of our Nylon were recycled. The North Face has now also been experimenting with recycled down for part of our sleeping bag line. This down has been sorted for quality and cleaned just like our virgin down.

Reducing single-use plastic waste

By creating a separate and specific route for our polybags, one where they are collected in distribution centers (and not sent directly to e-commerce customers) or in retail outlets and sent back for collection by dedicated recycling partners, we can capture poly bags before they enter municipal waste streams and thereby minimize the issues associated with contamination of the poly bag waste, and the contamination of household recycling waste streams, to produce reprocessed material which can be sold into the European market.

At The North Face we started testing this solution back in 2021 on a small selection of products sold on e-commerce. Given the promising results, we’ve successfully expanded the programme since then, removing polybags from an increasing percentage of the products that are dispatched from our warehouse locations in Europe. We are now delivering the majority of our products without a plastic polybag in the UK and will be transitioning to the same scenario for the rest of Europe very soon.

Over 2 million products have already been delivered without additional plastic packaging since then, allowing 40,000 kgs of plastic to be collected and properly recycled.

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Transitioning away from PFAS

A durable water repellent (DWR) coating is a chemical treatment applied to a laminate or membrane to form a protective barrier from water droplets on the outer layer. DWR finishes usually contain a class of chemicals known as PFAs which are persistent and of environmental concern. The North Face respects and supports legislation prohibiting the use of PFAs in apparel, footwear, accessories and equipment.
We have proudly reached our goal to eliminate PFAS chemicals globally from our products. We set out to remove these chemicals by the end of 2025, and thanks to the hard work and expertise of our fabric mills and suppliers, we completed this transition without sacrificing the high performance of our products!

Circularity refers to the concept of minimizing the use of virgin raw material and avoiding the disposal of products as waste, instead keeping products and resources in use, essentially “closing the loop” of production.

Our Circularity commitment is to scale up the number of products that fall under CircularDesign, improve our ability to circulate products and materials to keep them in use and convert 10% of our polyester and nylon volume to textile-to-textile recycled content by 2030.

The North Face Repair Service

For products that have been loved a little too much and have stopped keeping dry or warm, our repair service plays a crucial role in keeping it in use, allowing our customers to bring it back onto the trails.
Currently, the service is offered in select stores in the UK, as well as all O&O stores in Germany, Austria, Netherlands but we are actively working to expand it to more stores and more countries soon!

The North Face Renewed

If products don’t fit our customers’ style or body anymore, our Renewed program takes care of fixing it up, allowing the next person to take it out on adventures.
Our Renewed shop is currently available in the UK only, but we are working hard to offer it in other European countries soon!

Renewed Remade

If a product can’t be repaired back to its initial intended use, parts of it can still be used to create something different! This is the concept behind our Renewed Remade program, creating unique upcycled pieces from damaged gear and leftover fabrics from production processes.

These gems are offered through our Renewed shop as limited editions.

Circular Design

Finally, to avoid products ending up in landfill or incinerated, they can be recycled. But recycling textile products isn’t as easy as it may sound! This is where our Circular Design approach is key. By designing products that are more easily broken down and recyclable at the end of their usable lives through our take-back program.

These products are marked by dedicated Circular Design labels and hangtags informing customers of the specificity of their designs.

WE CARE

Our Commitments

Our time. Our future.

Our commitments

Our Commitments

Our time. Our future.

Our commitments

Responsible Materials

Supplier Engagement

Circularity

Born from Purpose

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