In hipster communities and college campuses across the country, The North Face’s iconic Half Dome logo is a familiar site, much as it has been for years. It’s found on fleece jackets and hoodies, T-shirts and hats, enthusiastically embraced by the Millennial and Gen Z set, in particular.

While The North Face holds a defined, unapologetic high-performance ethos and a 60-year history rooted in producing durable outdoor gear, the Denver-based brand’s urban, suburban and on-campus ubiquity have made it a poster child for the gorpcore movement — the fashion trend of sporting high-end outdoors gear in decidedly non-outdoorsy environments.

But beware of thinking The North Face, which boasts global sales approaching $4 billion, is little more than fleece jackets and hoodies spotted at a house party or a kitschy corner tavern serving cans of Schlitz. The North Face continues to emerge a serious player in trail running. Led by its three-model Vectiv collection of performance trail running shoes and the versatile, two-shoe Altamesa lineup, The North Face is earning rave reviews, loyal fans and increasing attention in run specialty shops and outdoors stores. 

‘A watershed moment’

It’s true, The North Face isn’t new to the trail running footwear game. In fact, the company launched its first trail running shoe – the Ultra 100 – way back in 2000. But over the subsequent two decades, the brand struggled to gain momentum in the footwear category. Frequent starts and stops hampered progress despite the company boasting an impressive elite athlete roster headlined by Dean Karnazes.

“We’re about ‘never stop exploring,’ but if you don’t have a solid pair of shoes, you’re not going to explore very far,” The North Face senior director of global footwear product and merchandising Marion Minary tells Running Insight.

Supported by insights from its athlete roster and sales of those aforementioned fleece jackets and other gorpcore favorites, The North Face turned a finer eye on trail running footwear as 2020 approached. The company grounded its efforts in credibility, authenticity and performance first and released the opening trio of shoes in its Vectiv series in early 2021 — the max-cushioned Vectiv Infinite, the lighter, more efficient Vectiv Enduris and the speedy Flight Vectiv, the first off-road model employing a carbon fiber plate.

The North Face senior global product manager of performance footwear Brett Rivers calls the Vectiv debut “a watershed moment” for the brand in footwear.

“We needed to have footwear relevant for our athletes, for our consumers and product our dealers were excited to put on the feet of their customers,” says Rivers, who founded the San Francisco Running Company in 2012 before moving over to the brand side and joining The North Face in 2019.

Though The North Face trail running footwear had struggled to resonate in run shops, the brand did have a reliable presence in the channel through its seasonal accessories and apparel, including the ballyhooed Better Than Naked line. The brand leveraged those relationships as a starting place to earn space on shoe walls across the U.S., initiating a multi-year grind that has taken The North Face from trail running footwear outcast to ascendant player.

Half dome, full speed

The Vectiv launch provided valuable momentum for The North Face, stirring interest for the brand’s footwear in places where little or, quite often, none previously existed. Slowly, steadily, the buzz began to rise, while leadership remained committed to trail running footwear in a manner that hadn’t previously existed.

In Spring 2023, The North Face debuted the Summit Vectiv Pro, a responsive, well-cushioned racer. The following spring, the brand introduced the more versatile Altamesa 300 and Altamesa 500. More recently, The North Face rounded out its trail running range with its Offtrail line — a collection born of FKTs and unconventional running adventures. In the meantime, the Vectiv lineup has added new generations while the Altamesa lineup launched version twos earlier this year. 

Legacy media outlets like Runner’s World and oft-frequented review sites such as Believe in the Run have showered models like the Altamesa 500, Vectiv Enduris and Vectiv Sky with praise. 

“In our opinion, there have been very few misses amidst an ever-growing family of shoes,” Believe in the Run wrote of The North Face in its preview of 2026 trail footwear. 

Drew Flowers, general manager at Trailhead Running Supply in Flower Mound, TX, has carried The North Face since the store’s December 2022 opening and credits the brand for gathering feedback on their footwear and, more importantly, implementing it. The Vectiv Enduris 3, for instance, was a shop favorite, but there was rather universal consensus among Trailhead staff that adding Dream Foam and a more aggressive lug pattern would make it more versatile across different terrain. 

“Sure enough, that’s exactly what they did with the Vectiv Enduris 4,” Flowers says, adding similar improvements took place with the Altamesa 500’s recent update. 

Indeed, The North Face continues capturing the attention of run specialty retailers. 

In 2022, fewer than half of run specialty doors already carrying The North Face apparel also brought in footwear, according to Rivers. Today, that number is approaching 90 percent. Existing accounts, meanwhile, have upped their orders, bringing more styles and colorways into their inventory. The North Face is also adding new doors and re-engaging with lapsed accounts specifically off the strength of its footwear. 

“That was never the case before,” Rivers says.

Earning every mile

Both Minary and Rivers admit The North Face’s climb in the trail running footwear category remains a work in progress. The brand must continue building product retailers want to share with their consumers and must continue earning trust with retailers. To the latter point, The North Face is investing in demo runs at retail shops, training runs and race sponsorships at heralded events like the Miwok 100K Trail Race in northern California as well as adventures like Race to the Summit in southern Vermont.

“Now, it’s about being consistent,” Minary says.

Skip Brand, who opened Healdsburg Running Company in northern California wine country in 2014, confesses an “affinity for” The North Face. While the brand’s apparel did well in his trail-centric shop, footwear was “up and down.” 

Since the 2021 introduction of Vectiv, however, Brand says The North Face has been far more intentional about developing footwear for top athletes and then bringing that to the masses. He credits The North Face for listening to feedback from retailers and runners, developing a wide spectrum of trail footwear and connecting with the trail running community through event sponsorship and events.

“It’s not crazy, new stuff, but it’s working,” Brand says.

While Trailhead’s Flowers hopes The North Face opens up its toe box a little more and pursues some limited-edition colorways, he’s a “huge fan” of the brand’s momentum with footwear. 

“If our customers and staff are putting their bodies through the demands of trail and ultra racing, we want to carry the gear that’s truly built for that environment,” Flowers says. “The North Face definitely checks that box.”

The North Face has new generations of the Vectiv and Altamesa percolating, while a new model built to push the limits of mountain running, the Offtrail Ultra, will debut this fall. Dealer bookings for that new style doubled company expectations, Rivers reports. 

In the past, The North Face struggled to maintain a steady lineup of thoughtful, fine-tuned footwear updates. But it’s a new day at The North Face, Rivers assures. He says the brand will continue “pushing on the performance side” and providing trail runners a “full quiver of footwear styles.”

“We have an opportunity to win as we’re able to get our shoes on the feet of more consumers,” Rivers says.