The North Face and virtual reality (VR) technology company Jaunt announced their collaboration and the upcoming release of a VR experience. Arriving in select The North Face retail locations beginning on March 16 in Chicago, the content reportedly will transport viewers to Yosemite National Park and Moab, Utah alongside The North Face global athletes Cedar Wright and Sam Elias.
SXSW Interactive 2015 visitors can receive a sneak peek of the content on Google Cardboard by visiting the Google Fiber Space at SXSW. Launched last year, Google Cardboard brings VR content to people from their own mobile devices.
The North Face VR allows consumers to step into in-store entertainment featuring “immersive, 360-degree 3D video and audio experiences that give viewers a convincing, high-quality sense of presence” inside the Moab desert and right alongside The North Face athletes prepping rope, climbing and setting their plans for the day. Captured with Jaunt’s proprietary 360 degree, stereoscopic 3D cameras and advanced 3D sound-field microphones, the content places viewers in the middle of the scenes with complete freedom to look around in any direction and experience every moment as if they were actually there, says the company.
“Working with The North Face to capture the remarkable beauty of our national parks has been one of our favorite and most powerful projects to date,” said Jens Christensen, CEO of Jaunt. “We are creating an entirely new medium for entertainment and the content we’ve captured in Yosemite and Moab are perfect examples of just how transformative cinematic virtual reality can be.”
Camp4 Collective, a group of athletes and filmmakers, worked on location with The North Face and Jaunt to produce the content.
“For more than a decade I’ve used every type of media imaginable to share the iconic stories of The North Face expeditions yet have not seen anything that can transport people to some of the world’s most remote and inspirational environments like The North Face VR,” said Tim Kemple, Director at Camp 4 Collective. “It’s impossible to put the headset on and not smile — I think this is a testament to how real the experience is and how well it connects with our inner need to adventure and explore.”
The North Face VR experience debuts at select retail locations this month in Chicago and then rolls out to New York and San Francisco. The North Face cinematic VR debut will be available for download by the public starting March 16 (jauntvr.com/content).
