When The North Face Does Denim, It's Indestructible
The North Face’s jeans are nothing like your everyday jeans. And why would they be? When the world’s most famous outdoor gear brand does denim, it must perform as such.
To create its new denim capsule, The North Face enlisted the services of CORDURA, an almost century-old brand initially specializing in durable military tires but now better known for inventing some of the world’s toughest fabrics. Militaries still rely on CORDURA’s hardy weaves to make combat uniforms but fashion’s caught up to the benefits of its hardy cloth.
Today, CORDURA’s found on everything from Our Legacy’s fashionable snowboarding gear to adidas’ most hardwearing Sambas to The North Face’s explorer gear. Oh yeah, and its jeans, too.
The North Face’s jeans are more like climbing pants, with an integrated belt on an elasticated waistband and zip-up back pockets, while the matching jackets have similarly outdoorsy features, like heavy-duty buckles for adjusting the fit and D-rings for attaching carabiners.
These are classic styles of The North Face outdoor gear built from not-so-classic denim.
Only 60% of CORDURA’s denim twill fabric is cotton, the other 40% being the company’s technical synthetic yarns like its “Coolmax” fiber (regularly used in motorcycle gear) that regulates temps to keep the wearer warm in the cool and cool in the warm.
Though they may look like casual Canadian tuxedos, these denim sets, available in TNF stores across Asia (and yet to make their way stateside), won’t rip or fray or get soaking wet like conventional denim.
It’s not full-on performance gear but it’s denim sportswear of the sort offered in Moncler’s ski gear and Ciele’s running apparel. It’s just that this is also denim for everyday wear, and being woven with CORDURA, it’s also near-indestructible.
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