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7h ago

The North Face Closes Final Berkeley Store

The shutdown ends the brand’s last retail presence in the city after years of repeated thefts and corporate moves that shifted operations away from the Bay Area.

The North Face has closed its final Berkeley store after 51 years. The closure follows the 2024 departure of The North Face’s only San Francisco store, leaving the company without a retail location in either the city where it was founded or the city where it established its early headquarters and factories.
The last location of The North Face in Berkeley, where the company was once headquartered, shut down earlier this month.
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Overview

  • The outlet at 1238 Fifth Street in Berkeley’s Gilman District closed in early July, removing the last North Face storefront in the city where the company once ran factories and its headquarters.
  • Store managers and local reports say the outlet had been hit by a string of thefts and break-ins, including a 2024 incident in which a woman reportedly entered through a skylight and stole roughly $20,000 in merchandise.
  • The North Face began as a San Francisco shop in 1966, moved to Berkeley in 1968 and opened the Fifth Street outlet in 1975 before VF Corporation bought the brand in 2000 and the company later moved its headquarters to Denver in 2019.
  • Neighbors and longtime customers posted memories of shopping and gear repairs at the outlet after the storefront was observed blacked out with the Half Dome logo covered and doors painted black.
  • The closure does not end The North Face’s regional or global operations because other Bay Area stores and outlets remain open, but local coverage frames the loss as a symbolic end to a hometown retail chapter and highlights ongoing retail security challenges.