Official North Face Thread vol. winter b

Cheap Wiz said:
Bip, aside from Trans-Antarctica and Steep tech stuff what are the best vintage North Face jackets to look out for? I'm liking the look of some of these National Ski Patrol jackets.

All I have to contribute to this thread at the moment is this '30 years of exploration' hat from 1998. Pretty cool hat with a Nylon exterior. It has a bit of military hat style fit to it which is interesting.

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I'm mad I slept on all the hats on this website though:

http://www.vintagegearoutfitters.com/hats.html


A couple months ago pretty much all of them were available then they sold out fast all of a sudden. All they had left were the Green (laurel) coloured one and the green Shipton Spire one which I snagged. When they arrive to me in the UK I'll post my impressions up here of them. Vintage North Face hats seem really hard to find. Trawling ebay I rarely find any. Its a shame because the older ones look like they have a really nice fit to them.
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Dude, my bad - I missed this post totally.

So, I like a wide variety of TNF. Obviously, the Trans stuff is top tier, followed by Helis, Search and Rescues, and then Steeps, I guess. But, I also like a lot of the other models - older Mountain Guides, for example. I even like the standard mountain lights and I think they are fresh, especially if you can find the rarer colors, like teal, mango, the brighter purple, etc.

Although they aren't super popular, I also like some of the even older stuff that has a totally different look - the extreme and vertical ski jackets have some wild colors and look totally different than most modern TNFs.

Now that this thread is alive again. I'll post some additional pics of stuff.

As far as that site, VGO basically folded up shop and from what I was able to deduce went and got rid of much of their stock on ebay.
 
A few pics

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The recent snowstorm in NYC

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A little throwback - this is probably from about '98 or '99. I wish I had all the TNF hats I had in the mid 90s. Most got lost in the ether. Ega will also recognize the Arctic Challenge rugby. I loved that match! ...Was probably rocking the bumble bee mids. If I told you where the pic was taken, you'd know that well too.

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My baby collection. Had waaaay more **** when I was younger but I sold everything and I started going for the more high end stuff now that I'm a bit more financially stable. 

In order from top to bottom:

Aztec Extreme Gear Dermizax

White Extreme Gear Dermizax

Stealth Highline

Aqua 92 (technically a 93)

Blue Brooklyn Basements Stormtrooper

OG Neon Moto

and I also have a Yellow 94 "No Smoking" Steep coming in
 
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Does anyone have any background on why the Trans Antarctica pieces hold so much weight? Is it purely because of their rarity nowadays, or did their heritage come from underground NYC culture in the 90s? Or is it just because they still hold up as some of the best pieces of technical outerwear TNF has produced to this day? Someone enlighten me cus theres not too much writing/real history out there on TNF like there is with Polo.
 
Cheap Wiz said:
Does anyone have any background on why the Trans Antarctica pieces hold so much weight? Is it purely because of their rarity nowadays, or did their heritage come from underground NYC culture in the 90s? Or is it just because they still hold up as some of the best pieces of technical outerwear TNF has produced to this day? Someone enlighten me cus theres not too much writing/real history out there on TNF like there is with Polo.
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I think there are a couple of things that go into their status. One, they are old. Only the joints from the original release really hold any weight. They were released in limited quantities originally. So, they were rare from the beginning. Two, the design is a pretty radical departure from the rest of TNF's jackets - there's really no other jacket in their catalog that looks like. And, you know that often when something is produced in limited numbers and has a unique, recognizable design, that's a recipe for a following. It was also created for a purpose, around an event, which gave it sort of its own brand within the brand, and given the event it represented, it was seen as sort of the pinnacle of the brand - embodying what TNF was really all about.

North Face generally was one of the signature brands of "that era" in NYC. And, much like anything else, once people get into it, they begin to want to find things that can one-up on another. So, people start to look deeper into the brand and find crazy stuff - in the case of TNF, stuff that represented the full idea of the brand. Hence the Heli vests, the RTG vests, etc. The Trans stuff was always rare; I seldom saw people rocking that stuff in the 90s.

The other thing that makes the Trans stuff a collector's jones is that, much like all the minor variations in logos and soles and stuff on Jordan 1s, there's an extensive and somewhat mysterious history of the coat. The number of different colors and styles of the OG run is more than some people think. The teal joint is the most popular, but there are a number of other variations. Then, there are variations for the different countries represented in the event itself, but those are basically like "PEs", though I know of a few heads who got their hands on stuff like that - stuff either made for participants in the event, or for ABC sports, which was documenting it. ...The lack of published history kind of adds to its appeal.
 
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Cheap Wiz said:
^Very nice writeup bip.
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Thanks.

Another thing worth mentioning when it comes to technical gear like TNF, one of the main contingents that made this kind of gear popular was NYC graffiti writers. With the wide array of pockets, which allowed for both storage and concealment, TNF was a great choice. Also, bad weather - especially the cold and snow - is prime bombing weather as well, as the streets are generally as quiet as they'll ever be in a place like NYC. So, something that's weatherproof, extremely warm, layer-able, and has all kinds of storage - that's the more technical TNF gear to a tee. Though, not necessarily the Trans, but it's just another point about what caused people to go deep into the TNF catalog. Of course, a good writer is a good racker, so the prices didn't really matter, as some of these dudes could steal anything.
 
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The way you write your posts Bip, I sometimes think you're Tommy Rebel. You seem like the same person. His interviews are also very interesting reads.
 
Seen posts on IG about the North Face photoshoot in Central Park NY today. Look forward to the pictures!
 
I spotted a family decked out in North Face.

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Trying to cop a steep tech jacket..
either the Apogee or transformer or anything similar..can someone school me on Steeps? whats the diff btwn the diff types of steeps..also, are they warm? Not going to front, i love the straps and zippers, mad pockets..i think it makes it stand out..so any info would be appreciated!
 
SN Souljah said:
Trying to cop a steep tech jacket..
either the Apogee or transformer or anything similar..can someone school me on Steeps? whats the diff btwn the diff types of steeps..also, are they warm? Not going to front, i love the straps and zippers, mad pockets..i think it makes it stand out..so any info would be appreciated!
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Paging @bip
 
Bump I'm looking for this Jacket and I just missed it in the Supreme thread. Anyone got any links
 

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