The North Face started in 1966 as two alpine ski shops within the San Francisco Bay region. Opened by aspiring alpine ski racer Douglas Tompkins and his wife Susie, the shops were named The North Face to signify the kind of gear they offered: rugged! In the Northern Hemisphere, the north face of a mountain is the coldest, iciest, and hardest to climb. Gear you take on that expedition had better be tough. While the stores were primarily focused on ski gear and apparel, they also sold a small variety of other types of outdoor gear. Shortly after establishing The North Face shops, Doug sold them to two brothers, who expanded the company’s range of retail stores. The business was sold again in 1968, this time to its most famous owner, Kenneth "Hap" Klopp. Hap not only added sleeping bag and pack production to the company but also tagged it with the iconic logo that the company still uses today. The North Face's easily recognizable logo, which consists of three concentrically smaller quarter-circles, is an interpretation of the famous Half Dome rock formation in Yosemite National Park. The North Face expanded in the 1980s to create a line of extreme skiwear, and by the end of the decade, they had become the sole provider in the U.S. to offer high-performance outerwear, skiwear, sleeping bags, packs, and tents. Today, about forty years later, The North Face offers an extensive line of high-tech outdoor apparel and equipment, and it continues to hold the reputation as the premier provider of gear for the outdoor enthusiast.