Environmental hypocrisy: Over 90% of North Face products are made from fossil fuel, CEO of Liberty Energy says

There’s an ongoing debate around the death of fossil fuels and how they contribute to global warming which eventually leads to climate change. Unknown to many, more than 6,000 products are estimated to be made from fossil fuels. Clothing is a good example of a product made from oil and gas. In fact, most of the fabric used in “Fast Fashion” is made from petroleum. Synthetic fabrics such as Polyester, Acrylic, Nylon, Spandex, and Acetate are all made from nonrenewable fossil fuels.

This leads to The North Face, an outdoor recreation products company that produces outdoor clothing, footwear, and related equipment. For many years, The North Face has made billions of dollars by billing itself as an environmentally conscious eco-friendly company. However, a careful analysis of the company’s products tells a different story. We will get into that later.

In one of the environmental hypocrisy stories of our time, late last year, North Face refused to make jackets for a small business in the oil and gas industry. In December 2020, Innovex Downhole Solutions, a West Texas oil- and gas-well developer, wanted to buy 400 North Face jackets customized with the company’s logo as a Christmas present for its employees.

However, to the company’s surprise, North Face refused to put the company’s logo on North Face jackets. North Face said it would not sell the jackets to Innovex, even though the small oil and gas business had previously purchased clothing directly from the North Face in the past without issue. North Face claimed Innovex did not meet its brand standards.

In an open letter to The North Face’s parent company, VF Corporation, Innovex CEO Adam Anderson in an open letter wrote: “North Face would not sell us the jackets because we [are] an oil and gas company.”

Now the fossil fuel industry is fighting back with a new campaign. In a video posted on YouTube, Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright “thanks” North Face for using so much petroleum in its products. Wright said he went to North Face’s website and searched a range of products. To his surprise, Wright was unable to find a single product that wasn’t made out of oil and gas. Wright added that a great majority of North Face products–jackets, backpacks, outdoor pants, shirts, shoes, hats, tents, and others–are predominantly made out of fossil fuels.

According to Wright, 60% of global clothing fibers are made out of oil and gas. For North Face, the figure is 90%. You can watch the rest of the video below.