BLOGS

2010 gear session at The North Face HQ

Post by: Meghann O'Brien

I recently had the opportunity to fly down to San Leandro, CA, where The North Face headquarters are located, to meet up with the rest of the action sports team for a research and development meeting. Leaving Vancouver it was pouring, and arriving in Oakland it was super hot, and I was very out of place in my winter coat. With an entire day to kill before meetings the next morning, I decided to do something that I don't really get to do that often anymore, and that was jump into a city by myself where I know nobody and nothing really about how to get around, and adventure on my own. I rode the subway into Berkley and found an awesome raw food restaurant and an incredibly cheap bookstore that was huge.

The next day we woke up early as we spent the full day going over the 2010 product for the Cryptic line -- things were looking awesome. For me it was all so new; lots of new people to meet, and I was so stoked to see what the designers were up to. With a group of female skiers and snowboarders, we tried stuff on, went over any problems we'd had with our current outerwear, and brainstormed ways to make the new product even better looking and functional. It was awesome to know that they take what their athletes have to say seriously. I think it's part of why they put out such a good product and are so well received. After all the meetings we went into San Francisco on this nice bus, and went to a Giants game. My first baseball game! When we got back, Jim Zellers had an ice cream craving, at which point we all piled into his minivan and drove around until we found some.

On Wednesday we had a full morning of looking at backpacks, footwear, mountain bike gear, and website stuff before jumping back on our airplanes and flying home. I went home to more rain and was super out of place again in my sundress and moccasins, which got soaked!

Ingrid Backstrom, Megs Pischke and her and DCP's little darling, Leighli.