The North Face is redefining hiking and its new campaign pulls no punches
The North Face is redefining the way it presents hiking gear with the launch of its SS26 Hike collection, a seasonal release organized around the environments hikers encounter outdoors: rain, wind and sun.
Instead of unveiling the range all at once, the brand plans to release the collection in three “chapters” in the spring, each highlighting products designed for specific trail conditions.
If you look at the first products that appear on the brand’s website, the path becomes clear.
Walking, restocked
Alongside the gear launch, The North Face is pushing a deliberately provocative campaign that claims hiking has become too clean.
“You know nothing about walking,” the manifesto begins, criticizing how foreign culture has been reduced to times of social media and “long, boring walks.”
(Photo credit: The North Face)
Instead, the campaign reframes hiking as something strange and personal, from “hiking in the pouring rain and fun” in bad weather to “howling at the moon” and getting lost in the wilderness.
It’s an unusual tone for a major outdoor brand, and one that’s clearly aimed at reconnecting hiking with a younger audience that might see the activity as overly traditional or elitist.
Prepare for whatever the trail throws at you
The collection itself includes a wide spread of hiking essentials, from waterproof outerwear and professional fleeces to trail shoes, backpacks and accessories.
The color palettes seem to alternate in each chapter, with greens, desert tones and muted blues reflecting different outdoor environments.
Some of the items already listed online include the Fastpack Waterproof Shoes, Lightning Convertible Trousers, and the Borealis Trail Backpack, alongside technical layering pieces like the Yumiori Full-Zip Fleece.
While many of these products already exist within The North Face’s hiking range, the SS26 campaign reinvents them as part of a wider system designed for environmental conditions rather than traditional product categories.
The full SS26 Hike collection will continue to air across all three chapters of the season until May.
The hiking collection is available now from The North Face UK, The North Face US, The North Face EU and The North Face AU, with prices from £15/$13/€15/AU$35.
