After 15 years in Center City, outdoor apparel brand the North Face will close its store on Walnut Street at the end of January.
Documents filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry show the planned shuttering by parent company VF Corp., and the Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification filing with the state indicates the the company is leaving because its lease at 1515 Walnut St. is expiring. The closure will affect 17 employees.
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Outside Philadelphia, the North Face has stores in the region at the King of Prussia and Cherry Hill malls.
The closure comes amid sliding sales figures for the North Face, which is the top-selling brand of Denver-based VF Corp. The company said it has missed revenue forecasts over the past several years due to weak demand and too much inventory. VF Corp. also owns brands including Vans, Dickies and Timberland. In October, the company said it would look to create $300 million in cost savings across its portfolio, the Denver Business Journal reported.
Earlier this year, the North Face also closed stores in downtown Seattle and at San Francisco's Union Square. VF Corp. also announced this week it will shut down a distribution center in Virginia and lay off 242 employees in January.
The pending closure on Walnut Street contrasts with an otherwise strong picture for retail in Center City. A report this week from the Center City District said retail occupancy across the district stood at 83% as of October. That rate reached a high of 89% in 2019 before plummeting to a low of 54% in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a survey of 376 Philadelphia residents, Center City District asked which retailers people most want to see open in the city. The North Face competitors REI, Patagonia and Dick's Sporting Goods were listed tops among outdoor brands. For clothing more broadly, the survey found people most want to see Zara, Abercrombie and Mango open stores in Center City.