The North Face First Look - Interbike 2011
The North Face have had a long history of making quality technical clothing for various outdoor pursuits, most notably skiing and climbing. And over the years many of their top athletes have been mountain biking as well, and wearing their North Face clothing to do it in. So for the past few years instead of letting everyone continue to ride in their ski clothes, they've been stepping it up a notch and working on a dedicated mountain bike line. Or actually several lines for 2012, the Cryptic MTB Collection, which is predominantly freeride based, and the XC MTB Collection, which is just what it sounds like, although heavy on the baggy shorts side instead of Lycra. They also have a Bike Commute line which seems to have some great about town riding clothes.
We're familiar with The North Face's technical clothing from other sports, and they have an incredible reputation for making great products. While we haven't actually tried any of their bike gear yet, we're certainly looking forward to it in the near future. With great input from athletes such as Mike Hopkins and Sage Cattabriga-Alosa we're pretty certain that everything has been designed to work, and all the details have been figured out. We took a look at a few of the items they had at the show, the rest will be on their website this winter.
The Cryptic MTB Collection: The North Face's Cryptic MTB Collection of freeride oriented clothing includes items such as the the Shifter Jacket, the Downieville Colab Short, the Shifter Shoe, and the Murray Dee Jersey.
The Shifter Jacket is a taped, seam-sealed freeride jacket with features such as a helmet compatible hood and rear elbow stretch vents.
The Murray Dee Jersey is a 3/4 sleeve jersey with an internal media player pocket and headphone port as well as other features such as a sunglasses wipe sewn in and a UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) of 30, while the Shifter Shoe is a general action sports sneaker that is as equally at home around town as it is out riding.
The Downieville Colab short is a collaboration between the North Face and Pro-Tec, and features a removable liner that has built in dual-density expansion-molded EVA concussion padding to protect your hips, tailbone and thighs from impact. It also has a great selection of other features including tough water resistant fabric with stretch panels, vents, pockets, and knees that are designed to fit over pads.
The XC MTB Collection: The North Face XC Collection is designed to keep you warm and dry and comfortable on those long epic rides that we love so much. It includes such items as the Bracket Jacket and short, the 29ER Short, and the Dirt Merchant Jersey. It's great to see a company like The North Face applying their years of experience in outdoor clothing to an MTB specific line. With gender specific chamois in their shorts and stretchable, odor resistant, water resistant, breathable fabrics throughout their line, we can't wait to try some of this stuff out.
The Bracket Jacket is a water resistant, breathable coat made of HyVent 2.5L fabric. With fully sealed seams and waterproof zippers it also has great mtb specific features such as a removable hood designed to fit over your helmet, plenty of vents, and an internal media pocket.
Women's Collections: The women's side also includes a Cryptic and XC Collection, as well as the Commute range. All the pieces have the same great technical features as the men's, with women specific styling and design.
Pictured above are the Aditie Hoody and Mercee Jersey from the Cryptic range, as well as the Devah Short from the XC collection.
They're still showing the 2011 Collection online, but the Spring 2012 stuff should be up on the The North Face website sometime in the next few months.
Though if you do want Goretex, North Face and Mammut do probably the best jackets out there. Quality is amazing comparing to other mass brands. Just look at that pic of the inside how well the seams are made - you don't find it everywhere
the seam taping is common in almost all levels of 2-layer waterproof rain shell from the $80-level and on up. unfortunately 2-layer jackets have that nasty "rubbery" feeling on the inside that gets unbearable as soon as you start exerting yourself, so you are BLOODY RIGHT regarding the vents. it doesn't matter whose brand is on the jacket, just cover that m*therf*cker with vents.
So big and long time ago founded not necessarily means qualitae! I find small "epic, cult" companies doing sht as well, as they simply don't have the know-how. From excellent and less known stuff, I wish Scarpa started making MTB shoes!
The key to making any outdoor weather gear that is "waterproof and breathable" work properly is keeping it clean and following the directions for maintaining the DWR finish on the fabric. Goretex works incredibly well in cold temps if it's clean and you're properly layered and vented. As soon as the outer fabrics get 'wet' they become cold and no longer breather properly, condensation forms on the inside. If you look at the outer fabric of your jacket and it's wet looking, it won't breathe properly, and you'll get condensation on the inside. So follow directions for cleaning and also maintaining DWR. That's often just a hot dryer, although some fabrics also need a coating reapplied every so often.
So next time you go to say something is "overpriced" think about it for a minute. Is it truly priced way more than it should be, or do you just want everything for cheap?
You are a professional photographer & in order to do your job more efficient you need Nikon D700 instead of Nikon coolpix S3100 (random example). But you pay a lot of money for gear which is constantly changing every 6 months (like macbook pro). Does it really worth it? I mean is the gear responsible for you talent or your passion about what you do.
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People, stick to companies who have always dedicated themselves to bike clothing: like Gore, Endura, Assos, Santini to name a few.
It's a real pity Rohan didn't see potential in cycling clothing 20 years ago. They could have become a big player in this market. They understood about breathability and quick drying fabrics way back...Same with Buffalo, LowePro, Patagonia and Rab (I've got all their mountaineering clothing, which are all lovely).
No idea how their MTB stuff will hold up but as I said they seem to be a company that makes it work first then worry about making it 'trendy', rather than the other way round.
I think there's too many companies doing a hiking jacket, then adding a longer lower back, slightly longer arms, doubling the price and then calling it a cycling jacket.
Like I said I have never tried NF products but when I have the chance I will. Do the same if you like with Endura.
Go home bro, you don't know what you are talking about.
it's MORE fashion than function. All the business men who commute to london every day at the station in their £300 TNF jackets bought it because they are going to be ascending everest that evening are they?
My point was that I THINK (my opinion...) that, although very functional and decent kit (as I did say), the kit is MORE fashion than function. I did NOT say it doesn't have function.'
1. You're not going to be using a $300 jacket at a 8000m peak like everest. That'd be like using a $1500 bike at a UCI DH WC. Another example of you not knowing what you're talking about.
2. You're saying that these garments are more fashion than function when the price of the garment comes from the materials and finishing. A $100 hardshell is going to have a breathable fabric and DWR coating, a $300 hardshell is going to have probably Gore-Tex performance shell, where as a $650 hard shell is going to use Gore-Tex Pro shell. They will have nearly identical styling and amenities but the change in fabric is huge as is the performance. WHERE AS you go to say Walmart and get a pair of Levi jeans for $60, and then a pair of designer jeans for $200. They are going to have the same fabric and ammenities, but the huge price jump is not from quality or performance.
And mtbrider71 I don't know what you got from TNF but their gear def isn't flimsy.
To address your first point, you didn't really address my comment. Ok, so they aren't ascending everest every day, but they certainly are not requiring the event or gore-tex fabric which they have in their jacket. In this sense, they have clearly bought the jacket because it is fashionable rather than for it's function, else they could have plumped for a £50 breathable DWR jacket as you said.
Secondly, I think your second point has little to do with this discussion, in fact, I don't disagree with it, so will leave you to chat about that on your own.