B.O.S.S. Goes One-On-One with TNF’s Steve Rendle

September 2, 2008
SGB Update

In an interview with BOSS, TNF President Steve Rendle explained that to sustain its meteoric growth rates, the company must reach outside the $18 billion outdoor industry and garner more business in the $22 billion actions sports and $48 billion performance sports markets…

The North Face disclosed at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market that it had reorganized its product management and marketing teams in April to go after action, performance and youth sports in a new way. In an interview with BOSS, TNF President Steve Rendle explained that to sustain its meteoric growth rates, the company must reach outside the $18 billion outdoor industry and garner more business in the $22 billion actions sports and $48 billion performance sports markets.

 

BOSS: What are your plans to sustain growth?
AC: We are a business that is very much driven by the specialty retailer. To continue our growth and to do it in a sustainable way, we need to find new specialty retailers. We are really spreading the meaning of the brand. We see an opportunity to really change the focus of how we approach the market and really leverage our tag line of ‘Never stop exploring’ and expand the meaning of exploration to include not just outdoor, but to also really recognize that we are an action sports brand from the winter perspective.


BOSS: How do you capitalize on being an “action sports brand from the winter perspective?”
AC: So, we are taking our outerwear and sportswear team and are pulling them together and organizing them around outdoor, action sports as well as performance athletic. It’s also taken shape in our marketing organization, where we have added brand managers in outdoor, action and performance. We have hired people out of these particular industries to come and help us gain that consumer insight and that consumer knowledge and help us craft our marketing message and really come at it from our authoritative voice. In addition to that, we have a very strong youth business. And part of increasing participation is really helping youth go outdoors and do the activities. So the youth business will line up under those same activities. We will focus building products the 6-year-old to 14- to 15-year-old can use to go outdoors. We will build year-round and we actually have a year-round action sports business. By framing ourselves this way, you really open up opportunities and the points of distribution we have to sell through.


BOSS: Can TNF really be a credible brand in action and performance sports?
AC: Skiing and snowboarding is something that has been in The North Face’s DNA for many, many years. We were the original backcountry brand with Scott Schmidt, still one of our iconic athletes. We also look at the performance athletic business, classic running business, and classic training business. We have been a provider of apparel and footwear for a number of years all based around trail running. Running is in the heritage of this brand. We’ve got the athletes: Sage Cattabriga, Ingrid Backstrom, Scott Schmidt, Jeremy Nobis. These are skiers, snowboarders that are in that action sports arena. I promise you surfers know who Sage is, but we are not a surf brand, nor do we intend to be. But we absolutely have permission to speak to that consumer.


BOSS: What role will your owned retail stores play in this?
 AC: They are phenomenal marketing vehicles. What we do is raise the awareness of the brand. We go away from being a single category brand in that consumer’s mind to being a lifestyle brand that makes things that enable you to go outdoors. Our retailer stores are that one uninterrupted place where we can tell our merchandizing story and they are the incubators that allow our visual team to craft our wholesale visual merchandising story as well. We take the [knowledge we gain] from our stores and we openly spread that with our wholesale partners.

B.O.S.S. Goes One-On-One with TNF’s Steve Rendle

SGB Update

The North Face disclosed at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market that it had reorganized its product management and marketing teams in April to go after action, performance and youth sports in a new way. 

 

BOSS: What are your plans to sustain growth?
AC: We are a business that is very much driven by the specialty retailer. To continue our growth and to do it in a sustainable way, we need to find new specialty retailers. We are really spreading the meaning of the brand. We see an opportunity to really change the focus of how we approach the market and really leverage our tag line of ‘Never stop exploring’ and expand the meaning of exploration to include not just outdoor, but to also really recognize that we are an action sports brand from the winter perspective.


BOSS: How do you capitalize on being an “action sports brand from the winter perspective?”
AC: So, we are taking our outerwear and sportswear team and are pulling them together and organizing them around outdoor, action sports as well as performance athletic. It’s also taken shape in our marketing organization, where we have added brand managers in outdoor, action and performance. We have hired people out of these particular industries to come and help us gain that consumer insight and that consumer knowledge and help us craft our marketing message and really come at it from our authoritative voice. In addition to that, we have a very strong youth business. And part of increasing participation is really helping youth go outdoors and do the activities. So the youth business will line up under those same activities. We will focus building products the 6-year-old to 14- to 15-year-old can use to go outdoors. We will build year-round and we actually have a year-round action sports business. By framing ourselves this way, you really open up opportunities and the points of distribution we have to sell through.


BOSS: Can TNF really be a credible brand in action and performance sports?
AC: Skiing and snowboarding is something that has been in The North Face’s DNA for many, many years. We were the original backcountry brand with Scott Schmidt, still one of our iconic athletes. We also look at the performance athletic business, classic running business, and classic training business. We have been a provider of apparel and footwear for a number of years all based around trail running. Running is in the heritage of this brand. We’ve got the athletes: Sage Cattabriga, Ingrid Backstrom, Scott Schmidt, Jeremy Nobis. These are skiers, snowboarders that are in that action sports arena. I promise you surfers know who Sage is, but we are not a surf brand, nor do we intend to be. But we absolutely have permission to speak to that consumer.


BOSS: What role will your owned retail stores play in this?
 AC: They are phenomenal marketing vehicles. What we do is raise the awareness of the brand. We go away from being a single category brand in that consumer’s mind to being a lifestyle brand that makes things that enable you to go outdoors. Our retailer stores are that one uninterrupted place where we can tell our merchandizing story and they are the incubators that allow our visual team to craft our wholesale visual merchandising story as well. We take the [knowledge we gain] from our stores and we openly spread that with our wholesale partners.

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