Sole Searching: How The North Face Built an Expedition-Grade Hiking Boot

Author

Tanner Bowden

Photographer

Chase Pellerin & The North Face

Designers harnessed athlete intel and an archive of footwear to bring a novel hiker into a collection normally reserved for alpine expedition gear

Published: 12-11-2025

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This article is the latest in an ongoing series of deep dives into past, present, and future icons called Sole Searching, made in partnership with Vibram. Earlier features outline how Saucony updated its most rugged trail running shoe and how Arc'teryx is creating a new category with the Vertex Alpine.

At the top of The North Face's vast product line, perched upon a mountain of Nuptse down jackets and Denali fleeces, is Summit Series. Since the collection's inception in 2000, the Summit Series badge has acted as a rubber stamp certifying the gear it labels as truly expedition-worthy—this is the stuff that finds its way up Alaskan peaks and down to Antarctica. What's it take to make the grade? A deep dive into the development of one of Summit Series' more unique products, a lightweight hiking boot with a built-in gaiter and Vibram outsole called the Summit Series Fastpack GORE-TEX reveals that in addition to cutting-edge materials, TNF's long history of supporting adventurers is a key ingredient.

The Summit Series Fastpack GORE-TEX Boot is a response to an evolution within hiking where athletes (and many of us not on the TNF roster) increasingly approach trails with a desire to move quickly across a variety of terrain, from muddy lowlands to technical zones higher up, and want footwear that can traverse it all. Such demands for adaptability led to a boot that combines a waterproof mid-height design that includes a one-piece gaiter and crampon compatibility with lightweight and responsive nitrogen-injected midsole foam from the company's trail running shoes. A custom pattern unique to this hiking boot's Vibram Megagrip outsole outlining sections of Yosemite and Sequoia National Park is the designer's subtle hint that a boot like this was made for routes like the John Muir Trail.

"There's a lineage to these projects," says Donnie Stiff, director of footwear design at The North Face. The Summit Series Fastpack family tree includes the Flight VECTIV Guard, a discontinued 2021 model that put a zippered waterproof shell over a lightweight trail race shoe. And there's the one-off model TNF made for UK runner Elsey Davis's winter FKT of the Bob Graham Round in the United Kingdom's rugged Lakes District, which featured a zippered upper, lots of cushion, and a custom Vibram sole with huge, wishbone-shaped lugs. "As the team builds custom prototypes for athletes, there's a lot of inspiration and insight that comes to our inline team," says Stiff.

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Fastpack prototype shoe for TNF athlete runner Elsey Davis

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A custom Vibram outsole for runner Elsey Davis

The insights flow in the other direction, too. As The North Face has expanded its trail running footwear collection over the years, a line called Vectiv that includes a built-in plate for stability has been something of a mainstay. More recently, shoes in the Altamesa family have served as a blueprint for creating stability and comfort through geometry, without plates. "It's a really great underfoot experience, but if you are, say, carrying weight with something like this, it could be very unstable in the heels," Stiff says. Through development and iteration—the Summit Series Fastpack boot went through roughly 10 versions—the team came up with a midsole that uses two types of foam laid out in a rim and core design atop a wide platform.

Stiff explains that for a hiking boot to meet the Summit Series standard, it had to be a pinnacle expression of performance-led design. That's why the boot uses Gore-Tex, the most recognized brand in waterproofing, and an outsole by Vibram, the gold standard in grip on outdoor surfaces, instead of TNF's own rubber compounds. Trust is part of the equation. "It checks that box of safety and reliability," he says. Vibram also offers unique tech, like Traction Lug, which puts micro-textured features on the sides of individual lugs (lugs on lugs, like on the sidewall of a KO2 off-roading tire).

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Fastpack sole design sketch

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Testing the Fastpack

For the Summit Series Fastpack, Vibram and The North Face collaborated to make an outsole tuned precisely to the boot's particular purpose. "Our design approach emphasizes sharp leading edges and carefully tuned draft angles that work together to maximize traction, control, and efficiency," says Vibram Design Lead Sean Gayle. "Central chevron lugs are engineered to provide both propulsion and braking traction, while the overall lug layout maintains ample spacing to enhance grip on loose terrain and support efficient medial release and debris evacuation." In other words, like the rest of the boot, the outsole is made to move.

"A Summit Series hiking boot seemed kind of like a crazy endeavor," Stiff admits, given that gear in the collection skews toward alpine expeditions. But no matter where mountain athletes choose to push boundaries, The North Face's product team remains intent on meeting them there.

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