North Face Brings Outdoors to Shoppers with VR Experiences

moab utah arch
Some of the iconic landscape in Moab, Utah, captured for the VR experiences

Outdoor apparel brand The North Face has teamed with technology company Jaunt to create groundbreaking virtual reality experiences for customers at selected retail locations.

The VR experiences, which will arrive first at the Chicago store next week, will transport users to Yosemite National Park and Moab, Utah to explore the terrain alongside The North Face global athletes Cedar Wright and Sam Elias.

“The North Face and our athletes are always looking to bring people into our expeditions and spark peoples interest in getting outdoors,” said Aaron Carpenter, vice president of marketing for The North Face. “The North Face VR transports people to Yosemite and Moab to see the beauty and be inspired to go see it for themselves.”

Visitors to South by Southwest Interactive 2015 will also be able to participate in the VR experiences, using Google Cardboard headsets to interact with the immersive, 360-degree 3D environments.

The video and audio experiences feature The North Face athletes prepping rope, climbing and setting their plans for the day amid the spectacular scenery of some of Americas most iconic landscapes, captured using Jaunts 360-degree stereoscopic cameras and advanced 3D sound-field microphones.

“Working with The North Face to capture the remarkable beauty of our national parks has been one of our favourite and most powerful projects to date,” said Jens Christensen, CEO of Jaunt. “We are creating an entirely new medium for entertainment and the content weve captured in Yosemite and Moab are perfect examples of just how transformative cinematic virtual reality can be.”