The founder and CEO of North Face speaks for 20 years, Happy Klopp, Traveling weekly On how to strengthen our relationship with wilderness can provide a solution to some of the world’s biggest problems.
You can walk across any shopping center in the western world, and you will struggle so that you do not see someone wearing clothes from the northern face. The brand was initially prepared to provide high -quality clothes to climb the rocks, and it is now synonymous with a longing to escape the urgency of the modern world and return to the place where we fear at the same time as we yearn: The Wilderness.
This task for re -delivering people with nature, and the wilderness was always at the heart of the brand of the outer clothing company, which bought two stores called The North Face in 1968, says this task to re -connect nature with nature, and the wilderness was always in the heart of the brand of the outer clothing company, which bought two stores called The North Face in 1968, says Hap Klopp, who bought Klopp, who bought the world, has established the Global Blue brand.
Like many great leaders, Klopp’s early vision of the Northern face was not only in nature, but was ideological.
A brand tangled with wilderness
“My goal is to build a brand about taking people deep in the wild. Traveling weekly.
“I always describe brands as coral,” continued. “They are growing very small and without imagining. They are making changes, but they have rules and guidance. With their growth, it becomes more interesting, more interesting, and more distinct, and this is what we were trying to do.
“We worked mainly to create a brand that was not productive, not a slogan, (although you needed all these things). The brand was about the values that we had, especially what we stop.”
While the brand was based on quality and disruption, it focused on encouraging people to explore the natural world and build a connection with it.
“I think the problem of the pain that we was solving in the world is that we wanted to enter people into the wilderness. I knew from the personal experience, from reading people like [David] Thoro that entering the wilderness revolves around maintaining the ground. If we can get people out of there, they will have an experimental position that would mainly change them, and if they do so, they will return to being better than rulers on the ground, because they want to protect it. “
This motivation feeds on everything that the northern face did. For example, one of the main priorities was to make lighter equipment so that people could travel to the wild but they are also protected from the elements.
While the most modern brands may fall on themselves to show that they are sustainable, Klopp shows that when it works with the wild, sustainability is something that comes normally.
“We have put a guarantee for life in our products, which emphasized the commitment to the environment, but as a person who was in the open air, you realized if your product failed deep into the wilderness, you may die,” he says.
Leaded by an adventure engine
Klopp’s passion for exploration, not profit, which led to the brand became world power today.
“We have become international as a business, not because we are chasing more customers,” he says. “But because I love to travel.
Ironically, of course, as soon as we started doing more works internationally, it led us to create different products for different environments.
“The travel was at the heart of what we were doing, and we were satisfied with our need to explore,” added Klopp.
“Explore everyone is different. If you are a seasoned ski, you may think the exploration is bored of the cliff. If you are skiing for the first time and the hill angle is five degrees you explore. You explore yourself.”
Applying the spirit of adventure to the modern world
Klopp itself did not stop exploration. Since his departure North Face, he has created a global consulting company with agents from startups to billion dollars.
His positive mentality on exploration applies to some of the world’s largest technological developments, such as artificial intelligence.
“Artificial intelligence will be the most revolutionary thing I have seen in your time,” he says. “You will be able to explore really great problems. Take climate change; we did not have a wide range width to be able to do this yet, but we will be able to look at things like knowing how to solve plastic in the ocean and how do things do a large size on a global basis.”
While many people feel exhausted due to change, whether it is economical or technological, Klopp says that returning to nature can provide a solution.
“We have faced many problems when the company started as you see it in the world now in urban areas. How do you go beyond that? How do you not conclude with these?” He wonders. “I think travel and go to these places, go to the wilderness, and see them, solve these problems. I think what we need is an optimistic mentality to be able to approach the world.”