Earth Day may have already passed, but collections and collaborations in honour of the event are still coming at us. On April 22, Earth Day, The North Face and Online Ceramics announced a collaborative collection based on the event that would release one week later. The collection combines The North Faceās heritage and commitment to sustainability with Online Ceramicsā similar care for the environment and large colourful graphics. The collection includes just over 20 new apparel pieces and accessories, delivering collaborative new jackets, t-shirts, sweatshirts, a sleeping bag and more. Among the pieces released by the pairing, itās The North Face and Online Ceramicsā collaborative 86 Mountain Jacket that most stands out.
For those unfamiliar with Online Ceramics, the brand delivers hand-printed T-shirts that feature large, relatively maximalist graphics with their inspiration often derived from imagery and lyrics associated with The Grateful Dead. Founded in Los Angeles in 2016, the brand has exploded over the last six years and its popularity coincides heavily with the recent resurgence of The Grateful Dead in the zeitgeist of popular culture. The brand also boasts an impressive roster of collaborators, delivering merchandise with John Mayer on several occasions and working closely with the popular production studio A24 on merch for movies like Uncut Gems, Midsommar, Hereditary, and more.
The North Faceās Mountain Jacket is one of the outerwear brandās most iconic pieces, making it an integral part of this collection. While a heavy usage of graphic design can often be used to identify an Online Ceramics piece, their collaborative Mountain Jacket with The North Face leans more towards minimalism than what might be expected. Instead of focusing on large graphics, the jackets seem to direct your attention to the sustainability aspect of this collection. Made from 30% organic cotton, 23% recycled cotton, 47% recycled polyester outer shell and a 100% recycled polyester inner lining, these jackets are made mostly from recycled fabrics and the two brands want you to know that. It is so integral to the design that the information is even featured on the outside of the jacket, which prominently boasts the materials on a collaborative The North Face x Online Ceramics brand patch on its chest.
The tie between sustainability and Earth Day can be found throughout the entire collection, which appears to do its best at being as recycled as possible. T-shirts, hoodies, and crewneck sweatshirts from the collection are made from The North Faceās recycled Re-Grind material, which takes the scraps of other garments and upcycles them into a new fabric. Beyond just the jackets, hoodies, crewnecks and t-shirts, every piece from this collection has earned The North Faceās āExploration Without Compromiseā badge, meaning that the pieces are made from at least 75% recycled materials.Ā
With this Earth Day-focused collection, Online Ceramics joins a long list of recent partners for The North Face. In the last year, The North Face has released collaborative collections with KAWS, PokĆ©mon, Supreme, Palace, and Gucci. With two-thirds of this year still to go, itās very likely that weāll see even more partnerships from The North Face, and if we had to guess, theyāll probably be pretty high profile.Ā
Buy & Sell both colours of The North Face and Online Ceramicsā 86 Mountain Jacket, as well as the rest of the collection, on StockX here.
