As the Year of the Horse approaches, The North Face has turned to China’s northwest to anchor its Lunar New Year campaign in geography, history, and lived experience. The result is the North Face Ten Thousand Horses Festival (北面万马节), a multi-location brand project built around the theme Exploration Is Our Destiny, using the horse as both cultural symbol and narrative spine.
The campaign unfolded across three locations in Gansu, tracing a route from cultural origins to physical testing. It began in Lanzhou, where The North Face partnered with the Gansu Provincial Museum to curate a themed exhibition focused on horse culture along the Silk Road.
The exhibition draws on historical artefacts and visual records, and positions exploration not as a modern impulse, but as a civilizational constant. Cultural scholars, media figures, and outdoor practitioners were also brought together for discussions linking heritage, movement, and contemporary ideas of personal calling.
From there, the project moved into the field. In Tianzhu, Wuwei, participants trekked through snow-covered terrain near the Wushaoling section of the Han-era Great Wall, with the Mayashan mountains as backdrop. The stage was deliberately austere: ancient routes, harsh weather, and high-altitude conditions. Here, product performance and environmental responsibility were foregrounded, with the brand integrating leave-no trace principles into the journey.
The final stop took place in Shandan, Zhangye, at the Shandan Army Horse Ranch beneath the Qilian Mountains. North Face installed its largest-ever outdoor logo installation and staged a live, open-air performance, turning the grasslands into a setting for reflection on nature, history, and movement.
Alongside the event, the brand released a Year of the Horse exploration collection inspired by the idea of the Fire Horse, featuring galloping-horse motifs and all-scenario protective design. With its 60th anniversary approaching, North Face framed the project as both a seasonal campaign and a reaffirmation of long-term values, and – all importantly – showed a deft hand at tying their modern outdoor wear into narratives about Chinese civilization, something that hits well with domestic consumers.
