Dive Brief:

• The North Face opened a San Francisco concept shop focused on the label's premium streetwear range, and has plans for a similar concept within its New York flagship store, slated to open on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue later this month, the company said Monday.

• The Urban Exploration store is a temporary pop-up featuring protective gear geared to urban consumers, a departure from The North Face's usual outdoor focus.

• The shop features exclusive and limited edition products, including “throwbacks” like reissues of The North Face's Original Daypacks and Soft Duffels. New items will also be brought into the stores, including curated pieces from the brand's Japanese and Hong Kong collections.

Dive Insight:

In an era when the same merchandise in a variety of categories is available at many retailers, including Amazon, differentiation is the most effective way to avoid competing mostly (if not solely) on price. 

The North Face already enjoys a level of differentiation, thanks to its American-made apparel and gear as well as its reputation for quality. The San Francisco Urban Exploration pop-up and the dedicated space in New York are ways to emphasize those differences, presenting them in a physical store aimed at pleasing shoppers.

“We have to start to measure the success of physical stores in a much different way. It can’t be as quantitative as it was in the past. It must be more qualitative," Lee Peterson, executive vice president of brand, strategy and design at customer experience consultancy WD Partners, recently told Retail Dive. "Did customers have a good time? Did they engage with the brand? Did they receive great customer service? People are buying goods in stores less and less often... Stores have to become something.” 

At the same time, The North Face is departing from its sporty, outdoorsy focus with a strong play for the urban consumer, a line of goods it characterizes as its “premium streetwear range.” The North Face worked with a third-generation factory in Chicago along with the Horween Leather Co., one of the oldest tanneries in the nation, to create “throwback” bags featuring durable waxed cotton canvas, with double reinforced panels, riveted stress points and premium leather trim. These originals are available in extremely limited quantities only at the San Francisco shop, but will be sold online and at the Fifth Avenue location beginning Oct. 13, The North Face said.