The North Face

The people at this store are as top notch as the gear they’re selling. I’ve had to send one older jacket off for repair and do a warranty exchange on another, and both times it went off flawlessly thanks to their excellent customer service. They have a great combination of new seasonal gear and perennial North Fave favorites/​best sellers, the store is attractively laid out, and it’s an overall terrific experience.

nice store, nice products. steeper price tag than Eddie
Bauer.
you can also buy the Go Pro cameras too.
AMEX good.
great outdoor theme here.

I was looking for a small carry on luggage and I really liked North Face luggage -«Rolling Thunder”-nice name! haha! I was torn between the small or medium. Since I was looking for a small one to carry on for flights, the small one was perfect. Fits perfectly in the overhead compartments. The material is nice, durable, wheels are cool like they are from an inline skate, handles are strong & retractable, also it has the skid rails on the edges for when the baggage handlers play shot put with your luggage.
Salesmen at the store gave me time to really open up all the compartments and compare the different sizes etc. Didn’t try to upsell me and gave me thinking time.
I waited to write this review but its been a while now and overall I really like it and has survived 2 trips so far with no problem.
Im sure this store has other stuff too like jackets etc, but I didnt look that day.
Happy North Face’n!

I loved this store, until I signed up for their VIPeaks reward program last July. I spent $ 506, and learned too late that the store associate had not entered this into my VIPeaks account. What would have been 5,000 points went by the wayside and only my two purchases totaling $ 150 at the Bellevue store were accounted for. Thus, I didn’t make the 2,500 point cutoff for any rewards, and when I emailed in to see what had happened, I was told they couldn’t be accountable for what happened in the store, despite my credit card statement clearly showing my 3 purchases at North Face retail stores in one week, totaling over $ 650.
A representative even called me and said they can’t account for missing points more than two weeks after a purchase. What a joke. It’s hard to even login to the program two weeks after you sign up! Recently when I went into the store to ask about the VIPeaks program (a year later,) the store associates were still clueless regarding how exactly the program works. Employees aren’t allowed to sign up, so nobody has any information and they can only direct you to the website, with limited information itself. Such a frustrating program. How disappointing after being a loyal consumer of their products for so long. Thumbs down, TNF.

I had about five different people greet me as I walked into the store– little olé me! I spent my giftcard plus a little more. The guy who helped me check out was very engaging. As I walked out of the store another guy bid me farewell. Then when I walked back in ten minutes later after realizing I had been over-​charged on a sale item, that same guy asked if I needed assistance and went straight to the register to refund my card.
There was one employee who did not seem very knowledgeable or helpful (I could have done better), but everyone else was great!

The inventory earns them the 2 stars, but service overall was disappointing.
I came in and was NOT greeted by the 3 associates standing a few feet by the door.
I actually had to greet them myself and tell them I had a few things on hold.
The whole 15 mins I was trying on my items, I was approached one time, which was after I was hanging up my own things.
They weren’t helpful at all when I had asked about items and in fact, the sales associate looked fairly annoyed that I asked.
Next, I tried on different sizes, and again she didn’t come up to me this time to ask if things were okay, but I ventured out to find my own items as those three associates chatted at their same spots.
Finally I had seen ONE associate doing work at the shoe section and I wanted to ask her if she was the only one working and if the others do this all the time… it was a WEDNESDAY. barely anyone was here and they gave poor service.
So I ventured out to finding another jacket and I loved one and I came up to one of them and asked to tell me more about the jacket … in their words ” … I mean it’s Hyvent, so it’s rainproof and it’s the North Face, so it will keep you warm.” Like wtheck??? What kind of information is that? I’m sure you can give more tech specs.
Overall, this place makes me not want to purchase a jacket I actually really wanted.
I actually purchased the jacket and ended up returning it the next day, because I wasn’t too happy with it’s results and sizing… which I wish they had XXS in women’s.
When I had bought the jacket, the girl had FINALLY come up to me and said «are you ready?» … In my head, I’m like about time you guys separated from your chatter circle and HELPED SOMEONE OUT.
She looked bored and just not friendly at the counter.
After returning the jacket, it was the same girl and I told her the situation. She again, looked bored, and was just telling me to swipe my card and such… Handed me the receipt and didn’t explain how the refund process was.
Overall, I actually don’t want to shop here. I’ll stick with the Bellevue North Face store of REI locations if this is the service and information I would get here.

While I enjoy the product, the customer service on a recent Saturday was extremely poor. I expected more, particularly for such a trafficked location. Four employees, one of whom was in and out of stock/​back room. I was not greeted and was not asked if I had questions. After browsing about 10 minutes, I approached a salesperson about a pair of shoes, She walked away while speaking to me and failed to answer my question. I asked again at the front counter and waited in the shoe section. When no employee came after five minutes, I bailed. Off day? Hope they improve the situation.

SPOILER: This is a completely BIASED review
I worked there for a little over a year (July 2011 — August 2012).
Why I recommend this store:
1. Jeff Schomaker– is the new store manager. He will stop at nothing to make sure that you have a great consumer experience! Not only does he know all the product technologies, but he is a true athlete (played D1 college baseball, he’s summited Rainer 6 times, rides his bike to work everyday– rain or shine, and loves to rock climb), so he uses all the gear himself, and can tell you his personal opinions on how each product performed.
2. The rest of the staff– everyone at this store is passionate about the outdoors, so if you have any questions about the products. or just want to learn more about rock climbing/​camping/​hiking/​trail running, don’t hesitate to ask! Good conversations are often the highlight of the staff’s day.
3. Lifetime warranty– it applies to all outdoor wear, backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, and luggage. People shell out a few extra dollars for The North Face brand, because North Face products are investments. If you have any problems with the waterproofing, seams, zippers, or lining, you can bring the product into any store and they will send it to the warranty department for FREE. Then once the warranty department has fixed it (or if they can’t– they’ll send you the newest version or give you a gift card), they ship it to your house (again, at no cost to you).

A lot of people wear The North Face, especially in Seattle, and there are other outdoors brands, but the customer service at The North Face is amazing. The only reason that this store doesn’t get 5 stars is that it’s a smaller store compared to the Bellevue location, and all of the other The North Face locations. However, I do like coming in here to browse when I’m in the UVillage and the customer service here is very friendly and helpful, and it’s the location most convenient to me so I keep coming back.

Their rain jackets get pretty expensive but such clothing is a huge necessity for living in the PNW. I would say that it may not be a bad idea to invest in a nice rainjacket because they are definitely essential for living in Seattle. What I like about their jackets is its hat covers my glasses so my glasses dont normally get too wet. Ive definitely had other rain jackets where they cant sufficiently cover my glasses and thus I wont be able to see too well when it rains hard.
They have a good selection of hoodies, backpacks, hats, rainjackets, etc. For a winter jacket, the price ranges from approximately $ 60 to $ 260. Occasionally in mid-​summer they have sale and discounts.
The store isnt too big. It is sort of hidden at the University Village. Its staff is nice and often very helpful. When I purchased my backpack here, the staff was really patient with me, offered much advice, and helped me select an ideal backpack.

This is the only North Face I have been too. I think they have a large selection and the staff is consistently helpful and very friendly. They are always quick to offer up advise or suggestions. This NF is in University Village… secret parking tip… park by QFC, it’s way less jammed!

The store is on the small side so the selection isn’t fantastic, but the staff are very helpful. I was in the store looking to replace my existing North Face jacket because the lining was torn and rather than try to sell me another jacket, the sales associate informed me that all North Face gear has a lifetime warranty and I could simply send the jacket in for repair at no cost. Pretty sweet!

Living in Seattle, part of the wardrobe is to own a North Face jacket… Well, I decided it was finally time to «retire» my previous one (although, I still have and wear it) and hit up the North Face store and buy one.
While on a shopping trip to the U-​Village, I stopped by this location to check out their selection… Lo and behold, I was surprised to find a sale had just started that day! Great right?! Well… the jackets I saw online weren’t available at that location, but available at the first avenue store…
This location didn’t have a great selection that I had expected and while parking is readily available at this store… make the trek and pay the $ 2.00 for parking at the First Avenue location. I ended up going there and got exactly what I was looking for!
The service was definitely o-​k in my book and they could use a few more staff people to help people out. It wasn’t very busy, but there were definitely not enough sales people to go around… all in all, not bad!

One of the necessities for living in the Pacific Northwest is a decent rain jacket. I have a decent rain jacket. My husband has a decent rain jacket. Scratch that, he HAD one, that is, until he lost it, like an elementary school-​aged kid, somewhere on the playground of life. And thus began our frustrating search for a new one.
Something I just don’t get, and I went through this two years ago when I was in need of one, is why do rain jackets cost so much? Essentially, in most cases, they are made of nylon. Thin swatches of nylon fabric, without any sort of lining, and yet, they cost upwards of $ 100. I was shocked, but somehow I managed to find a jacket for under $ 50. Probably not the best quality, but it gets the job done, keeps me dry.
Imagine my horror when we walked into The North Face store and discovered jackets costing more than $ 100. In fact, most of them were in the $ 200 range. I thought we’d hit the price plateau until on our way out, we noticed a jacket — a simple, unassuming waterproof jacket, mind you — for $ 499.
Excuse me?
Of course, there was no way in hell we’d ever buy such an expensive jacket, but that didn’t stop us from speculating about all the things this jacket must be capable of doing. I mean, why else would someone buy a rain slicker with such a ridiculous price tag?
The North Face «Modulus Jacket» surely must:
–include electric hand warmers and a built-​in mp3 player and GPS system.
–become its own parachute.
–desalinate, deionize AND purify water.
–become a cloak of invisibility.
–be able to mint money.
–cure world hunger.
Upon further inspection, this jacket does not, in fact, do any of these things. Rather, it just seems to include a whole lot of pockets and zippers. Not that impressive at all. There are so many better things to do with $ 499 than spend it on a North Face jacket.
And so the search continues …