Processed in February 2021
This collection was donated to USU Special Collections and Archives by Mark Erickson in 2021.
No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from the Mark Erickson papers must be obtained from the
Mark Erickson started working at The North Face in 1970 after repeatedly applying for a job at the headquarters. Starting out his career at The North Face with a broom and a pair of trimming scissors, Erickson was later offered a career as a designer. This position catapulted Erickson into the forefront of outdoor gear designers as he helped create many cutting-edge outdoor products from 1970 to 1975, such as the Oval Intention and the Big Foot synthetic sleeping bag. In 1977, Erickson created a technical line of alpine skiwear using Gore-Tex fabric, which was a fairly new and innovative outdoor fabric at the time. He also created a color blocking pattern for jackets – a brightly colored fabric with patches of thick black fabric in areas of heavy wear like the elbows and shoulders – that became popular with the outdoor recreation community. In 1988, Erickson decided to leave The North Face and started Erickson Outdoors a few months later with his wife Jan Fletcher.
The collection contains papers related to finance, design, and production at The North Face from 1968 to 1978. The materials provide insight into early operations at the company, particularly in the realm of tent design.
The materials are arranged chronologically.
Outdoor Recreation Catalogs (ORA 001)
Outdoor Recreation Magazines (ORA 002)
Michael Hodgson and Therese Iknoian outdoor industry collection (
The North Face catalogs from this donation were added to the Outdoor Recreation Catalogs (ORA 001).