The True Face of the North Face

 

It started with a nice gesture. Adam Anderson, the CEO of Innovex Downhole Solutions, wanted to buy his employees a Christmas gift. So he ordered 400 North Face jackets and asked that their corporate logo be included.

Then came the bad news. The North Face company would sell Innovex the jackets but wouldn't include the energy company's logo. The reason? Innovex was an oil and gas company, and it would be a bad thing for North Face's public image to associate itself with the industry.

Not happy with that answer, Anderson struck back with some public relations of his own. It turns out the vast majority of North Face's apparel—its hoodies, snow pants, coats and many other items in its product line, like backpacks and tents—are made with polyester, polyurethane and nylon, all of which come from petroleum. Even its fancy fleece jackets are made of polyester.

 

The North Face is the new king of environmental hypocrisy

The North Face has managed to make millions by billing itself as an environmentally conscious eco-friendly company. It even went so far as to refuse to sell clothes to a small business in the oil and gas industry. In reality, however, its business is predicated on selling clothes, shoes, and outdoor gear made of petroleum-based synthetic materials and then shipping those products around the world on fuel-guzzling ships and airplanes.

Earlier this month, it turned into the Grinch for Innovex Downhole Solutions, a West Texas oil- and gas-well developer. Innovex wanted to buy 400 North Face jackets customized with the company’s logo as a Christmas present for its employees. The North Face, however, would not sell the jackets to the small business, even though Innovex had previously purchased clothing directly from the company in the past without issue.

The outdoor-clothing giant claimed Innovex did not meet the clothing maker’s brand standards.

“North Face would not sell us the jackets because we [are] an oil and gas company,” wrote Innovex CEO Adam Anderson in an open letter to The North Face’s parent company, VF Corporation.

As Anderson points out in his letter, “The irony … is your jackets are made from the oil and gas products the hardworking men and women of our energy produce.”

The North Face, like most clothing makers, depends on fossil fuels. About two-thirds of clothing is made from synthetic materials derived from fossil fuels. The use of synthetic fibers has doubled over the past 20 years, and synthetics are particularly popular in recreational gear such as that made by The North Face.

But The North Face’s environmental hypocrisy goes far beyond peddling pricey parkas, hiking boots, and backpacks that happen to be made largely of the very materials whose extraction it publicly opposes.