TNF Purple label is 100x cooler than normal TNF and you’ll never own any!!!

The North Face offers a lot of quality outerwear and equipment, but most of it is pretty basic, and function-over-form. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably wished you could own some TNF that was cooler than what normal people wear but not over-branded like Supreme or other streetwear brands’ collabs.

Well, you might be surprised to find that what you’re looking for exists, but The North Face isn’t interested in selling it to you unless you live in Japan, and only in Japan.

In Japan, special TNF stores exist that sell unique upscale variants of what you can buy here, or anywhere else in the world. This Japan-only offshoot is known as TNF Purple Label. Why? Because the square North Face logos that are normally black or red or whatever are all purple.

Its rarity everywhere else in the world, combined with its sick designs and high quality have given it somewhat of a cult following in the western world, making obtaining any imported pieces even harder for someone who isn’t invested in yahoo japan auctions or japanese proxy services.

TNF’s more streetwear-oriented offerings separate from it’s collabs (such as this past spring’s ‘92 rage collection) can’t hold a candle to what Purple Label puts out. I’d go so far as to say that Purple Label TNF is modern TNF at its best, surpassing any collab. The subdued yet standout designs represent a timeless, casual style that evokes vintage energy without straight up reusing vintage designs, like normal TNF tends to do.

Take, for example the 1990 mountain jacket, one of TNF’s most iterated upon silhouettes. Most of it’s iterations seen in the US are essentially updated rehashes of the original jacket. Purple Label, on the other hand, decided to reconstruct the entire jacket in indigo dyed lamb nubuck and fill it with optoelectronic down (idk what that even is), and the result is almost a new jacket.

Purple Label owes its prominence to Eiichiro Homma, the brain behind the project since its founding in 2003 (fr, this dude has a jimmy neutron head) as well as the creator of nanamica, the Japanese streetwear brand. In fact, Nanamica’s physical locations in Japan also serve as retail stores for TNF Purple Label, and their web store also serves as Purple Label’s online store. Homma says he takes a similar approach designing for Purple Label and Nanamica - both brands combine a “high-level mix of fashion and function."

So at this point you’re probably waiting for me to explain why purple label isn’t sold anywhere besides Japan. Well, it isn’t really just an issue of TNF not wanting to sell it here. You see, North Face Purple Label isn’t actually The North Face. It isn’t a knockoff brand with a similar name like Supreme Italia either. Rather, it’s a totally separate company with a different parent. It’s a long ass story that would really require a separate article to tell, but basically, Purple Label is owned by Goldwin, a Japanese garment company that focuses on technical apparel. They are allowed to sell North Face branded and styled goods provided that they only do so in Japan. The North Face that we’re all familiar with is owned by VF, who has the rights to sell stuff called “The North Face” everywhere else.

The beginning of 2019 marked the first and only (so far) time purple label has retailed outside of Japan, and it was in a New York popup. With the way that the TNF copyright works it’s likely that this kind of small scale popup is the only way the rest of the world can get close to what Japan has.

So the next time you’re on the subway and you see someone rocking a TNF jacket or bag with a purple logo, just know you’re getting flexed on.