JD + THE NORTH FACE
In 2018, JD and The North Face released the first footwear collaboration between two brands, consisting of two footwear styles designed and sold specifically through JD’s doors. These two styles were modified versions of the popular Back to Berkeley Boot and the newly introduced Litewave Light Hiker. This collaboration was developed through close communication along with the creation of a focused plan to create guidelines and expectations around delivering a dual brand collection. I made multiple trips to JD’s headquarters and regional British retail doors to understand the consumer, the visual point of sales, and retail space layouts. This initiative was to design a collection that would align to The North Face apparel brand aesthetics by focusing on color, use of materials, as well as creating a look and feel for the outdoors. Holding the Number#1 apparel spot within JD, The North Face lacked footwear designs that reflected the needs and wants of a younger, more progressive consumer. This collection was the first partnership of apparel and footwear coming together to create a complete head to toe look.
Inspiration
The North Face is an outdoor brand focusing on exploration by providing the means to do so. This same philosophy and way of thinking also needed to be the driver behind this collection. How does one capture the storied history of The North Face while introducing and modernizing retro inspired hiking silhouettes into a new lifestyle collection? The request was to amplify the identifiers of outdoor performance footwear and combine a lifestyle aesthetic in order to create energy and youthfulness within the unfamiliar urban consumer. This was achieved by creating two themes: “Retro Revisited and Modern Mix”. These themes were the guardrails for building the collection concepts within.
Initial Exploration
This collection of designs for JD was the first of their kind from The North Face. This collection was to be a city lifestyle offering first while being grounded within the “outdoors”. By highlighting trims, materials, and toolings as a way to create a footwear collection, these designs complimented and elevated the already successful apparel selection.
Initial Design Direction
BACK TO BERKELEY HIKER
How does one make the design visually recognizable? This concept collection took the Back to Berkeley Boot and added modern detailing, construction, and materials to an already familiar pattern. Highlighting the brand by enlarging the logo was important for this concept as well.
LITEWAVE HIKER
What is the final result of combining a modern trail runner along with a classic hiker that is rooted with outdoor aesthetics?
This concept was more focused around making a boot sneaker. The thought was a juxtaposed offering of suedes, tpu films, and ballistic meshes to create something unexpected and new to this consumer and the lifestyle retail space.
Direction Finalization
FINAL DESIGN: BACK TO BERKELEY TECH
One of the two final design directions is the Back to Berkeley Tech. This two silhouette proposal consisted of both a mid and low pattern. Both designs shared the same midsole and outsole along with the same upper materials and trims. Tonal colors with contrasting logos would round out this style collection.
FINAL DESIGN: LITEWAVE BOOT SNEAKER
This two silhouette offering is the second of the two collections for JD. Sharing the same style direction as the Back to Berkeley offering, two silhouettes were proposed, a chukka and low pattern. Both patterns would share the same tooling as well as upper construction and materialization, being tonal in color with highlighted oversized branding.
Market Release
The initial release consisted of two silhouettes that were available in two colorways each. The Back to Berkeley Hiker would be available in a low pattern with Blue / Grey and Black / Grey colorways, both would possess a yellow logo as a pop.
The Litewave hiker would also be a low pattern with two colorways, a tonal Navy and a tonal Olive Green, both colors would share a white logo.
