The North Face’s Iconic Steep Tech Relaunch Just Dropped
Winter is coming. By which I mean, the big one. There’s really no preparing for it, but you can ride it in style, for which The North Face has you covered. This season, TNF is relaunching its historic Steep Tech collection from 1991. It’s as functional for the ski resort as it is stylish for the rave. It also includes some of the most iconic silhouettes from The North Face’s archive.
For starters, Steep Tech is a touchstone collection in the history of the whole technical-sportswear-meets-streetwear genre. Designed with professional extreme skier Scot Schmidt in 1991, Steep Tech was the first-ever athlete-inspired clothing line for skiers. Hundreds of hours went into design decisions, like relocating pockets, adding webbing, and using more durable materials. At the same time, it was also designed with prints and colorways that referenced hip hop and rave culture, which made it an enduring classic for the streetwear cognoscenti. (Supreme even resurrected the line with The North Face in 2016 to wide acclaim.)
In the way that Schmidt shaped extreme skiing, the Steep Tech collection shaped the look for technical city wear. In this season’s relaunch, take a look at the Steep Tech Apogee Anorak, which is a revival of the flagship Dolomite Transformer Jacket from the 1991 collection. Also notable is the unisex Long-Sleeve T-Shirt, which reprises the look of long sleeves from the Supreme X The North Face SS16 collection.
The new Steep Tech collection is now available on thenorthface.co.uk and in select The North Face stores and speciality retailers.