“We know better than anyone that there are plenty of women out there who are already accomplishing incredible, inspiring things every day. Yet women and girls don’t see themselves represented as ‘explorers’,” said Tom Herbst, global vice president of marketing at The North Face. “We had a simple theory that if women and girls see more role models in exploration, it will create more female role models for future generations.”
Watch the short films to learn more about Moves Mountains visit www.thenorthface.com/shemovesmountains or follow the conversation with #SheMovesMountains.
SHE MOVES MOUNTAINS: The cornerstone of Moves Mountains is celebrating stories of women who are pushing boundaries, including The North Face athletes, alpinist Hilaree Nelson, climbing phenoms Ashima Shiraishi and Margo Hayes, and ultrarunner and activist Fernanda Maciel, in a series of short films narrated by fellow role models who admire them. The North Face is also featuring women who are explorers beyond physical exploration, like women’s empowerment advocate America Ferrera, NASA scientist Tierra Guinn Fletcher, and musician and activist Madame Gandhi.
In an effort to canvas the world with female explorers who are artists, athletes, educators and scientists, The North Face is making a commitment to equal representation of women in all advertising, social media and content moving forward.
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD: To help enable the next generation of women to push boundaries and move mountains, The North Face is announcing a multi-year outdoor adventure partnership with GSUSA that includes 12 new outdoor adventure badges with programming ranging from mountaineering and climbing, to backpacking, hiking and trail running.
To launch the partnership, The North Face is joining with America Ferrera, Girl Scout alum and women’s empowerment advocate, to increase visibility of role models for girls and encourage them to explore – both outdoors and beyond – in their everyday lives.
“The time is now to begin leveling the playing field so that young women and girls grow up seeing women who are already out doing incredible things in the world,” said Ferrera. “I have no doubt women have been doing it for generations, but those stories don’t tend to get told. Which is why I am proud to partner with an iconic brand like The North Face, to bring resources and increased visibility of female role models to young women and help the next generation see what’s possible.”
A RENEWED FOCUS: The North Face is also applying the spirit of Moves Mountains to its internal business – with an increased investment in women’s product design, renewed focus on employee development through partnerships with Camber Outdoors and Paradigm for Parity Coalition, and ensured closure of the gender pay gap on the athlete team.
Additionally, The North Face will grow its annual $500,000 Explore Fund to include an additional $250,000 grant program focused specifically on enabling exploration for women. Details on the new grant will be announced later this year. The Explore Fund was founded in 2010 and has since given $2.75 million to over 500 nonprofits in support of furthering outdoor exploration.
