I own a few pieces of North Face brand gear and clothing from 20 + years ago (one of which cost @ $400 and I had to special order), they are well made and have served me well but, based on their hypocrisy, I won't be buying any more of their products when there are so many other brands to choose from.

[note: there are several Twitter posts embedded that I haven't figured out how to include, along with multiple hyperlinks, an audio playback feature, and the ability to download the open letter to VF and forum members might want to read the article from the linked website.]

============================================

Why Innovex’s CEO Spoke Up about North Face’s Stance on Oil and Gas

A viral letter by the CEO of a Texas-based service company sparked a social media frenzy by oil and gas supporters bringing the importance of industry messaging to the forefront.

By Len Vermillion
Hart Energy

Mon, 12/14/2020 - 12:30 PM


Pictured is a black jacket by The North Face. Hart Energy reached out via email to VF Corp., the corporate owner of The North Face for a response to Anderson’s letter and has not received a direct response as of yet. (Source: Shutterstock.com)


Adam Anderson, CEO of Innovex Downhole Solutions Inc., only wanted to buy his employees a Christmas present. Little did he know he’d be thrust into a social media frenzy and become the unlikely center of attention in an ESG movement that is increasingly gripping global businesses, including the oil and gas industry.

It all started when his order for 400 jackets from popular outdoor apparel brand The North Face was rejected. Why? According to Anderson, he was told by his distributor that The North Face rejected the order because Anderson wanted to put the Innovex logo on the jackets, and the company rejected the idea of placing an oil and gas services company logo on its jackets.

It was a curious stance for The North Face to take considering Anderson had received lower quantity orders with his company logo on The North Face jackets in the past. In addition, as many Twitter and Facebook users pointed out, the jackets are made with Nylon, which is a petroleum-based product.

While Anderson never received a direct response from The North Face or its corporate owner VF Corp., the distributor told Anderson it was told it could not put the Innovex logo on the jackets because it was “not consistent with its brand standards, which they told him was because we are an oil and gas company,” Anderson told Hart Energy in an interview.

“Officially, they don’t put that in their terminology, but they told him it’s because if you look at their official disclaimer it references other companies they wouldn’t want to be co-branded with such as alcohol, tobacco, porn,” Anderson continued.

Anderson was able to find another company to sell him the jackets through the distributor—Eddie Bauer. For many executives that may have been the end of the story, but for Anderson, the episode awakened a frustration he said he’s felt for a long time.

“The jackets are one thing and the solution to that problem isn’t really a big deal, but I think it really hit a nerve—the idea of the population in general and even within our industry of apologizing for what oil and gas does,” Anderson said. “What we do is good for humanity and good for the world. Like everything, there’s trade-offs. But I think somehow in the oil and gas world, we only talk about the small portion of challenges. We don’t talk about the 99% of oil and gas which is great for humanity.”

He’s not alone. Industry messaging in the rising age of ESG (environmental, social and governance) among investors and anti-fossil fuel sentiment among the public, has become a prime topic of discussion within oil and gas circles. Hart Energy’s own virtual DUG conferences held this fall had their fair share of passionate discussion on why and how the industry should speak up for itself.

Anderson decided he would speak up and penned a letter to VF Corp. CEO Steve Rendle in which he wrote “low-cost, reliable energy is critical to enable humans to flourish.”

In the letter, Anderson proudly trumpeted the benefits of oil and gas on society and the progress the industry has made in reducing harmful emissions into the atmosphere. He also pointed out the irony of The North Face’s stance given the influence of fossil fuels on its products and businesses. “Without oil and gas there would be no market for, nor the ability to create, the products your company sells,” he wrote.

It was that last point that helped the letter go viral thanks to industry social media influencers such as EnergyFinTwit (#EFT) and tweets from notable names such as U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas).

“Ah yes, North Face, who is fully divested from oil and gas except for… their supply chain, synthetic petroleum-based materials, transportation, retail stores, and manufacturing. Virtue signaling is exhausting. Stop it,” Creshaw tweeted in response to a story by KOSA-TV in Midland-Odessa posted on Dec. 11.

“I was flabbergasted by the attention the thing has gotten,” Anderson said. “I’ve gotten feedback from a couple of folks at much larger businesses that said they had the exact same issue with North Face in the last year or two years and they didn’t do anything about it.

“I guess everyone gets themselves wound up in the ESG world and wants to apologize for what we do,” he continued. “It’s a problem. Leaders in our industry have become focused on this idea of what we do is a ‘necessary evil.’”

Anderson also pointed out that he was inspired by the Alex Epstein book “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.”

The North Face saw plenty of criticism over the weekend, particularly after The Financial Times reported on Anderson’s letter. As speaker after speaker at industry events have pointed out recently, the risk of surrendering the messaging on fossil fuels to environmentalists and politicians can be lasting.

“The fiasco of ‘The North Face’ shows that ‘reality’ doesn’t matter. That is scary since the implications are severe: once you are labeled, who knows what’s next? Where is the outrage from the left about a company that dress them with cloth made from fossil fuel? #oil #OOTT,” industry speaker Anas Anlhajji noted in a tweet.

Hart Energy reached out via email to VF Corp. for a response to Anderson’s letter and has not received a direct response as of yet. However, in response to critical posts on its Facebook page, The North Face stated in a comment:

“Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. We receive many requests from different companies or organizations to partner on co-branded product, and evaluate each individually based on multiple criteria, including product supply, time constraints, and if they align to our brand values. To respect the privacy of these organizations we keep the results of these decisions private.”

The North Face had social media support for its decision as well with Twitter comments to The Financial Times post of its article generally showing support for the apparel company. Though, those comments in support were far outnumbered by industry supporters elsewhere on social media who took the opportunity to let out their frustrations.

Overall, Anderson said he’s just a small player in the grand scheme of things but he hopes the oil and gas industry begins to take better care of its messaging to the public. That’s a sentiment shared by a growing number of industry executives and analysts.

Len Vermillion Len Vermillion is Hart Energy's editorial director. Based in Houston, Texas, he manages an editorial department consisting of HartEnergy.com, Oil and Gas Investor, E&P and Midstream Business, as well as nine digital newsletters and several special projects.

Take oil & gas away from those idiots, in every aspect, then see what they say! Fuctards!!

Pardon me for traipsing into your thread, not to derail it, but I just want to say I am thankful that I am enjoying my Natural Gas Furnace lately.

It always works. Works great.

It was 21 degrees last night, tonight's forecast low is 28.

Thank you for what you do, you guys, and women, in the energy industry. I too have family members in the energy business.
.

I thought the customer was always right...
Hey I want to buy 400 of your jackets...can you put my logo on them

Ohh noes..we can’t do that!

Lemme see if my math is right...400 jackets at let’s say $100 each..that’s $40,000 ....

If I was a stock holder I’d be sending a letter to the company...

Just stupidly.....who doesn’t want to make 40grand..

quote:

Anderson was able to find another company to sell him the jackets through the distributor—Eddie Bauer.

I was happy to read that. Eddie Bauer is one of my preferred brands.

And from someone who makes his livelihood in the oil and gas industry, North Face can suck ma balls.

Sorry Mike, you can't fix STUPID!!

What exactly does North Face manufacture in the US? Perhaps they should sell their products in the third world shit holes they are produced in.

Virtue signaling at its best. FWIW, North Face long ago lost the reputation as the premier expedition/outdoor products company. Their product line has turned to shit and they lag far behind Arc’teryx and even Mountain Hardwear in everything but city street ready garbage. I see more NF trash walking around cities than in the great outdoors.

These virtue signaling clowns have no idea what they are talking about. Can top execs at North Face really be that ignorant, or are they just plain stupid? Evil maybe? They are not alone. Every time I read a financial publication these days, there’s a story of some big time investment banker, hedge fund operator, or pension fund manager bitching about the oil and gas industry.

These ESG characters dumped untold millions into the campaign coffers of Creepy Joe and Kommiela. Now the nation will be stuck with them for the next four years. What a bunch of idiots. They can all go to hell as far as I’m concerned.

Must be nice living in a nice home, driving nice vehicles, wearing nice clothing, eating good food and having all the other things in life one wants... too be able to turn away a 400 piece order.

Economics 101 - failed

No big loss for me, I've never owned anything manufactured by SouthFace.

Columbia makes a nice product. But wasn't they in the crosshairs awhile back?

Sorry, but isn't half of North Face's product line derived from oil? You know, plastics?

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
Virtue signaling at its best. FWIW, North Face long ago lost the reputation as the premier expedition/outdoor products company. Their product line has turned to shit and they lag far behind Arc’teryx and even Mountain Hardwear in everything but city street ready garbage. I see more NF trash walking around cities than in the great outdoors.

This. NF gear is a fashion statement these days. They once made great outdoor gear and some of it still is but there are now other good players to choose from.

I have a NF Gore-tex jacket shell that has been in some interesting conditions and has never let me down. It's at least 15 years old and still keeps me dry when it's raining/snowing sideways.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: comet24,

quote:

Originally posted by roustabout:
Every time I read a financial publication these days, there’s a story of some big time investment banker, hedge fund operator, or pension fund manager bitching about the oil and gas industry.

In the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life George Bailey is granted the blessing of seeing how bleak and fallen so many lives would have been without his positive influences and actions. In another Christmas classic, A Christmas Carol, Ebeneezer Scrooge learns how fortunate he truly is after being visited by three ghosts who show him the past, the present, and most importantly the future. After viewing the future he learns the errors of his ways and decides to make changes in the present.

I try, to remain calm when analyzing policy decisions and situations that others would react to emotionally...but the small petty side to me would love to see industries and organizations that are targeted by the SJW virtue signalers like Oil & Gas go all Atlas Shrugged and simply unite in a work stoppage and disappear from the fields. (and while we're fantasizing, let the police, restaurant workers, pharmaceutical companies, firearms/ ammo companies and anyone else being targeted join in). The disruption to supply chains, the inconveniences caused, hell the magnitude of wealth that would be destroyed would be epic...or at least memorable. I realize that there would likely be national security concerns and probably loss of life that would keep this from happening, but it would almost be worth it, just to shove the sheer hypocrisy of the virtue signalling SJW Left right into their faces, and make them taste the bitterness in consequences of their own failed belief system.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
NF gear is a fashion statement these days. They once made gear outdoor gear and some of it still but there are now other good players.

I remember when TNF was one of the handful of go-to brands for serious outdoor/expedition people.

quote:

Anderson also pointed out that he was inspired by the Alex Epstein book “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.”

I’ve read Epstein’s book and listened to him at an O&G conference. He drinks the kool aid for sure, but makes many sound arguments.

Like our friendly thread on EV, the general population is quite ignorant on where energy comes from and how it impacts society, economy and environment.

TNF thought they’d make a statement by rejecting this order, but it just highlights their hypocrisy. I’d bet they brag about an order from BLM or Antifa.

A few years back I put these red ones on the only two pieces of their gear I own. Seems especially apropos now.

When I started to collect gear for hiking and camping, North Face was a go to brand. This was the early 1970's. North Face gear was available only in true outdoor stores, today they would be called technical outdoor stores. The North Face of today is a name only, overpriced posers. The kind of technical gear the new Dick's will sell.

As for North Face management. I wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt. I suspect they have not a clue about the raw materials necessary to make their products. My experience with today's workforce and management indicates very shallow pools of knowledge and no motivation to deepen those pools.

North Face is for posers. Like SPWA said, it was the preferred brand for climbers and mountaineers in the 70's and 80's. Today it is the preferred brand of inner city gangs. TNF can go suck a bag of Dicks.

Next year they are going to make jackets from the windmills?

The North Face can go to hell.

They are a shell of a once great company that now only creates fashion pieces made in Pakistan and China. Patagucci too. I'm so sick of hearing their virtue signaling nonsense. Patagucci rejected hundreds of orders from the Wall Street sect (who wouldn't be caught dead wearing the North Face) for the same reasons.

Patagucci Sez NO!