The North Face Review: Is It a Good Brand and Worth It?

The North Face is one of those brands almost everyone recognises, from the half-dome logo on a summit jacket to the Denali fleece that has been on backs since the late 1980s. It also sits above supermarket kit on price, which is why the two questions asked most about it are simple: is The North Face any good, and is it worth the money?

This is a research-led spotlight. It draws on the North Face gear we have reviewed on Coast & Fell and on verified facts about the company, rather than any single day on the hill.

The verdict up front

Yes, The North Face is a good brand, and for the right piece it is worth the money. It is a premium outdoor label with proper heritage: founded in 1966, it built its name on expedition kit and turned several of those designs, the Denali fleece and the Nuptse down jacket among them, into products that are still in the range decades later. That track record is the point. When a brand keeps selling the same design for thirty-plus years, it is because the thing works.

What you are paying for is proven engineering, hard-wearing materials and a broad, well-supported range, backed in the UK by a two-year warranty against manufacturing defects. It is not the cheapest way to get kitted out, and it does not need to be. Where the value lands is in items you will wear constantly, a fleece, a daypack, a pair of trail shoes, because the cost spreads across years of use.

If you only ever buy one North Face item, make it the Denali fleece: the piece that best captures what the brand is about.

The North Face at a glance

Founded

1966, San Francisco, California

Founders

Douglas and Susie Tompkins

Headquarters

Denver, Colorado, USA (relocated from Alameda, California in 2020)

Owned by

VF Corporation (acquired in 2000)

Known for

Technical outerwear, the Denali fleece, the Nuptse down jacket, packs and footwear

Price tier

Premium

Warranty (UK)

Two years to the original owner against defects in materials and workmanship

The story: from a San Francisco shop to a global name

The North Face started in 1966 as a climbing and backpacking shop in the North Beach neighbourhood of San Francisco, opened by Douglas Tompkins and his wife Susie. The name is a nod to the north face of a mountain in the northern hemisphere: the coldest, iciest and most demanding side to climb, and a clear statement of who the shop was for.

In the late 1960s the business was sold to Kenneth "Hap" Klopp, who ran it for around two decades and grew it from a retailer into a manufacturer of serious expedition gear. That period set the template the brand still trades on: tents, sleeping bags and outerwear tested on real mountains and named after them.

Two of those pieces became icons. The Denali fleece grew out of the expedition apparel work of the late 1980s and went on to become one of the best-selling fleeces of all time. The Nuptse down jacket, named after a peak beside Everest, arrived in 1992 and later crossed over from the mountains to the street. Both are still sold today, which is rare for any outdoor product.

In 2000 The North Face was acquired by VF Corporation, the American apparel group that also owns brands like Timberland and Vans. The North Face moved its headquarters from Alameda, California to Denver, Colorado in 2020. It is no longer an independent company, but the heritage designs and the mountain-first positioning have carried through the ownership change.

What The North Face does best

The North Face is broad where some rivals are narrow. It covers outerwear, insulation, fleece, footwear and packs, and it does several of those categories genuinely well.

Proven fleece. The Denali is the obvious example. A design that has stayed in the range since the late 1980s is not held together by nostalgia; it is warm, tough and cut for movement, and it is the North Face piece we would point most hikers at first. Read the full Denali fleece review for how it performs.

Insulated jackets. Down is a core strength, with the Nuptse the flagship, and The North Face sources its down to the Responsible Down Standard so it can be traced away from live-plucking and force-feeding.

Footwear that spans the range. The brand makes both waterproof trail shoes and lighter walking shoes. The Offtrail TR GORE-TEX brings a proper waterproof membrane for wet UK trails, while the Hedgehog 3 is the lighter, more everyday walking shoe.

Packs that last. Daypacks like the Borealis are built for commuting and day hikes alike, with the kind of hard-wearing fabric and comfortable carry the brand has a long record in.

Practical hiking clothing. The Exploration trousers are a good example of the brand doing the unglamorous stuff well, with both a convertible zip-off version and a regular tapered cut covering different preferences.

The common thread is range plus longevity. The North Face is not a specialist in one narrow niche the way some British brands are; its strength is doing a lot of categories to a consistent, hard-wearing standard.

Is The North Face worth the investment?

This is the question worth answering before you spend, so here is the straight version.

The North Face is priced as a premium brand. You are paying for proven designs, materials chosen to last, a large and well-supported range, and the backing of the biggest name in the category. In the UK that comes with a two-year warranty to the original owner against defects in materials and workmanship, which covers manufacturing faults rather than ordinary wear.

Where does that leave it against rivals? It generally sits below the very top tier, the likes of Arc'teryx, and lands in broadly the same premium bracket as Patagonia and the better British brands like Rab and Montane, though the exact gap depends on the category and the specific piece. You are not paying the highest prices in outdoor kit, but you are paying more than budget labels.

Is it worth it? For the pieces you will actually use often, yes. A fleece, a daypack or a pair of trail shoes that stays in the rotation for years spreads its cost thin, and the North Face designs that have survived decades are exactly the ones built to do that. Where it is harder to justify is buying into the brand for something you will barely wear, or paying the premium purely for the logo. Buy the right item for how much you get out, and the value is there. Buy on the badge alone and you are paying for the name.

Sustainability and repairs

The North Face has a set of sustainability programmes that are worth weighing if this matters to you. As a large brand owned by a global group, it is a work in progress rather than a finished story, but several of the commitments are concrete.

Responsible Down Standard. The down in North Face jackets is certified to the Responsible Down Standard, a third-party scheme that tracks the supply chain to ensure the down does not come from live-plucked or force-fed birds.

Recycled and responsibly sourced materials. The North Face has a stated goal for its highest-emitting materials to be recycled, responsibly sourced, renewable or regeneratively grown across its product categories by 2030.

The Renewed programme. The North Face runs a resale platform, Renewed, that cleans, repairs and resells used gear, with items that cannot be refurbished donated or recycled. It also has a Circular Design line built to be more recyclable at end of life.

Repairs and warranty. In the UK the two-year warranty covers manufacturing defects, and the brand's repair and Renewed operations mean well-made kit can be kept in service rather than binned. A brand that will refurbish and resell its own gear is designing at least some of its output out of the throwaway cycle.

Every The North Face piece we've reviewed

Our rating on each, with a link to the full review and where to buy it.

The North Face FAQ

This is part of our Brand Spotlight series. For the layers themselves, browse the full hiking fleeces guide and the hiking jackets hub for everything we have reviewed.