The North Face Denies Service for Oil & Gas Company in Texas

The North Face denied Innovex Downhole Solutions business because they are an oil and gas company.

According to a report from our news partners, KWTX, the Houston Texas based oil and gas company wanted to place an order of jackets for about 100 employees as Christmas presents. They've done so in the past with The North Face and wanted to do so again this year. The North Face jackets were to also have the Innovex logo on them.

The company they ordered the jackets from told Innovex that The North Face rejected their order because they didn't want to support the oil and gas industry, in the same way they wouldn't be associated with either the porn industry or tobacco industry.

Innovex CEO Adam Anderson says, “They told us we did not meet their brand standards. We were separately informed that what that really meant is was that we were an oil and gas company.”

The crazy part is that The North Face jackets are made from the same things they claim to be against.

“Hydrocarbons are important not only to energy but to most the products we consume and utilize today,” Anderson said.

“The recreational activities they encourage are all ones that require hydrocarbons to make the products, to provide the means to get to whatever activity folks want to perform,” Anderson said. “It’s just so intertwined with everything that we do.”

Anderson responded to The North Face through LinkedIn, writing a 4-page letter about the oil and gas industry’s importance to modern life.

Anderson isn’t mad and they did get jackets made from a different outdoor company but he does hope that this will create the discussion on the importance of oil and gas.

“I think there’s a view out there in the world that’s increasing that says, ‘Oil and gas are bad, and I just fundamentally disagree with that view in every dimension.”