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Adventure Partners: 3 Creators Tell the Stories Behind Their Favorite Jackets
Why The North Face outerwear is a creative tool, not just a garment.
Some gear inspires loyalty. But the best gear inspires stories.
According to rock climber and artist Margo Hayes, artist Sean Yoro, and style star Maria Beltre, The North Face makes both happen by creating versatile, technical jackets that have accompanied these creators on tours around the world. To the trio, the best outerwear is more like an adventure partner than a garment, helping inspire their own personal epics as key pieces of their creative toolkits, thanks to reliable designs that offer comfort and protection in a range of environments.
To learn more about their stories, we recently linked with Hayes, Yoro, and Beltre, chatting with them about their favorite jackets and everything from scaling mountains in France to scouting Arctic locations for art installations and even the sentiments behind learning about their own style heritage online. So scroll through, peep their looks, then snag some adventure gear of your own.
Margo Hayes is a professional rock climber and artist. Through climbing, she’s been able to tour the world, competing in bucket-list destinations from Chile to France. And her 1996 Retro Nuptse Jacket is the one thing Hayes always brings with her.
“The North Face Nuptse Jacket has always been my favorite,” she confesses.
In fact, Hayes wears her Nuptse jacket everywhere.
“I love animal prints, they’re kind of my way of being bold," she explains. "I’ll go climbing in this jacket and then [wear] it on a walk in the city. It’s so flexible and can be worn with anything.”
For someone who spends much of her life traveling, Hayes says her Nuptse can even feel like a home away from home.
“It feels like [a] kind of protection,” she explains. “I think that's what a good jacket is, it's like a little home that you can fall into.”
As an innovator who makes most of his art in nature, Sean Yoro always has his signature The North Face Carto Triclimate Jacket by his side. The versatile, waterproof DryVent™ 2L shell and zip-out insulated liner help Yoro survive, letting him respond to changing weather as conditions dictate.
“My main rule of thumb is, if my gear isn’t as adaptable as I need it to be, I can’t use it,” he explains.
Yoro has to be able to go from a beach-based installation to creating murals on city streets to painting on ice, all tasks the Carto Triclimate Jacket is up to helping him tackle. “I feel so much more comfortable when I have the right tools around me,” he says.
So, no matter if it’s chilly, rainy, windy, or even snowy, Yoro’s Carto Triclimate Jacket has never let him down.
“I wear my jacket anytime I'm exploring or scouting for locations to kind of gain inspiration,” he continues. “So I do a lot of things… I do a lot of exploring and inspiration for the first steps of my projects. Whether it's in the ocean or in a forest or out in the Arctic.”
Online style savant Maria Beltre says she got into The North Face thanks to Tumblr, when '90s aesthetics and that decade’s beloved New York favorite, the 1996 Retro Nuptse Jacket, began popping up all over her feed.
“I wish I grew up in New York in the '90s,” she shares. “The way I grew up in Brooklyn… I saw the way my parents would dress, the way my family would dress and that inspires me now. I feel like I'm more of that old school vibe, not really what people are wearing now.”
To stay close to her old school Brooklyn roots, Beltre continues to rock the Nuptse, a style she came across on Tumblr years ago. She even logs on to Tumblr from time to time and still catches new ways people are rocking her favorite outerwear.
“This is who I truly am. In 10 years, I'll look back and [see] I didn't try to change for a trend or this or that,” Beltre emphasizes. “I think that's what people like, because it's me. So many people can try to adapt to new things. You do have to keep up with the times, of course, but I think [it’s about] being yourself and staying true to who you are.”