[akvadrako]

NorthFace has become a lifestyle brand, so they don’t have a lot of incentive to make things technically good anymore.

If you want good technical clothes you need to pick brands that average people don’t recognize, because they have an incentive.

[NovemberWhiskey]

I think it's fairer to say that TNF has expanded also to include a whole lot of lifestyle clothing.

They continue to offer quite a lot of expedition-ready gear (tents, waterproof shells, etc.) that's definitely not lifestyle stuff - mainly under the "Summit" sub-brand.

e.g. does the shell have a hood that's sized to fit over a climbing helmet? Probably "serious".

[hdrujvw-4579]

Absolutely, I concluded the same some time ago when I saw it being sold en masse in major retailers in the US. Most of these brands now seem synonymous with some status/lifestyle statement.