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The North Face (TNF) wanted to make its camping gear more accessible for Disabled customers. But in doing so, they actually improved their products for kids, parents, and numerous other customer segments. That’s the power of universal design.
This is the story behind The North Face’s Universal Collection of camping gear released this past April. In this episode, you’ll meet TNF athlete, ski pioneer, and Disability access strategist Vasu Sojitra and Senior Manager of Internal Communications and Community at TNF, Wade Balmer. Vasu and Wade take us through the eight-year arc from the question that changed everything to a post-it-covered prototype tent, to the marketing campaign featuring Disabled athletes. We learn why TNF made the deliberate choice to market the collection around its technology and performance rather than around disability alone and how they measured success beyond sales.
For advertisers, marketers, and designers, this is a case study in identifying an overlooked audience, building trust with that community before launch, and marketing a product without either erasing or tokenizing the identity it was built for.
In this episode:
- 0:00 — Intro
- 5.15 — The question that changed everything
- 2.39 — What is Universal Design?
- 7:30 — The project pitch
- 12:56 — Testing and prototyping
- 16:02 — Are accessibility and sleek design mutually exclusive?
- 18.30 — Authentic Disability representation in the marketing campaign
- 24:50 — What was the response to the campaign?
- 33.14 — What comes next for accessible design in the outdoors space?
Learn more about The North Face Universal Collection: https://www.thenorthface.com/en-us/c/shop-all/universal-collection-829924
Learn more about Level Access: levelaccess.com
Learn more about Making Space: making-space.com
Follow Vasu Sojitra: @vasu_sojitra on Instagram
Follow Wade Balmer: @Wade Balmer on LinkedIn
Follow Level Access: @LevelAccessA11y on YouTube
Follow Making Space: @_making_space__ on Instagram
Follow Advertising Week: @advertisingweek on Instagram
