Interaction between The North Face® and the GORE-TEX®
Today I want to talk about the consumer band of The North Face® partners with the textile brand of GORE-TEX®.
As we all know, The North Face company is known for its outdoor products and the brand itself is named for the coldest, most unforgiving side of a mountain. When they design their outdoor products, they will place great importance on the integrity of our waterproof/breathable fabrics. However, high performance fabrics require lots of time to develop which will make the company lose competitiveness in the competition with other companies.
The GORE-TEX® products are well known for providing long-lasting, comfortable weather protection. The GORE-TEX® membrane is at the heart of all GORE-TEX® products. Due to its microporous structure, it has some amazing characteristics. A GORE-TEX® laminate is created by bonding the GORE-TEX® membrane between high-performance lining and outer textiles. GORE-TEX® product technologies offer unique solutions for specific activities and climate conditions. The GORE-TEX® brand itself produce garments and jackets named by its own brand name. However, the selling of its own brand garments with a small market share can not meet the demand of its enterprise development.
Then the interaction happened. The North Face company collaborate with GORE-TEX. The North Face company use GORE-TEX high performance fabrics, and the GORE-TEX occupy a large share of the market by using The North Face brand quickly. GORE-TEX® fabric is chosen by The North Face outdoor apparel brands as their pinnacle technology for waterproof, windproof, and breathable protection, with a wide variety of products in the marketplace and new styles appearing each year.
The North Face® partners with GORE-TEX® to deliver the industry’s most innovative and highest performance waterproof, windproof and breathable weather protection. The North Face incorporates 3 specialized fabric technologies in GORE-TEX®products: GORE-TEX® Performance Shell, Waterproof GORE-TEX® Pro Shells, Waterproof GORE-TEX® Paclite® Shell. GORE-TEX® fabrics lead the industry in providing durable waterproof, breathable protection. The GORE-TEX® membrane is completely impervious to rain, sleet and snow, while allowing perspiration to pass through it from within. Tiny pores in the GORE-TEX® membrane allow perspiration to escape while preventing water from entering.
All the advantages of GORE-TEX® fabrics meet the requirements of high performance fabrics of The North Face. Also, the large market share of the North Face makes the GORE-TEX® occupies a large share of the market. They advertise their products together by posting slogan such as “GORE-TEX® + The North Face — Stay Dry Whatever the Weather!” This new way of advertising two brands together makes these two brands looks more reliable than other brands.
The North Face® and GORE-TEX® co-market in different ways. I think the most impressed way of their co-market strategy is they believe they are community of interests. Both of the two brands will use their own resources to advocate their cooperation products. (For example, we can find one brand’s promotion in the other band’s website) In my opinion, the advantage of textile brand is their technology and their brand, but not the marketing, so this strategy is benefit to the textile brand. Also, the North Face makes itself more reliable to consumers by collaborating with industry’s most innovative and highest performance fabric brand.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_North_Face
https://www.thenorthface.com/about-us/technology-innovation/technology/gore-tex.html
