Fully-Immersive VR Experiences Coming to Select Retail Locations Beginning March 16th with Sneak Peeks at SXSW
ALAMEDA, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — March 11, 2015 — The North Face, the world's premier supplier of authentic, innovative and technically advanced outdoor apparel, equipment and footwear, and Jaunt, the technology company building the hardware and software to make truly immersive cinematic VR possible, today announced their collaboration and the upcoming release of a groundbreaking VR experience. Arriving in select The North Face retail locations beginning on March 16 in Chicago, the content 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 also receive an exclusive sneak peek of the content on Google Cardboard by visiting the Google Fiber Space at SXSW. Launched last year, Google Cardboard brings rich and immersive VR content to people from their own mobile devices in an affordable and accessible way.
“The North Face and our athletes are always looking to bring people into our expeditions and spark people’s interest in getting outdoors,” said Aaron Carpenter, Vice President of Marketing, The North Face. “The North Face VR transports people to Yosemite and Moab to see the beauty and be inspired to go see it for themselves.”
The North Face VR allows consumers to step into in-store entertainment like never before, providing completely immersive, 360-degree 3D video and audio experiences that give viewers a convincing, high-quality sense of “presence” inside the Moab desert and one of the nation’s greatest national parks, 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 right 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.
“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 The North Face retail locations this month for everyone to see, starting in Chicago and then rolling 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). A sneak peek of the content will be available for attendees of this year’s SXSW Interactive conference by visiting the Google Fiber Space at 201 Colorado Street in Austin during SXSW ‘15.
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About The North Face®
The North Face, a division of VF Outdoor, Inc., was founded in 1966 with the goal of preparing outdoor athletes for the rigors of their next adventure. Today we are the world's leading outdoor brand, creating athlete-tested, expedition-proven products that help people explore and test the limits of human potential. We protect our outdoor playgrounds and minimize our impact on the planet through programs that encourage sustainability. The North Face products are available at premium and specialty retail sporting goods stores globally and we are headquartered in California on a LEED Platinum-certified campus. For more information, please visit www.thenorthface.com.
About Jaunt
Jaunt is developing the hardware, software, tools, and applications to enable cinematic VR and put the power of virtual reality in the hands of today’s best content creators. Jaunt’s algorithms for complex computational photography allow content producers to create incredible immersive 360 degree, stereoscopic 3-D, cinematic VR experiences using existing production software. The company’s investors include Highland Capital Partners, Google Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Peter Gotcher, Blake Krikorian, and British Sky Broadcasting ( corporate.sky.com). Experience more at www.jauntvr.com.
Contact:
The North Face
Pamela Bennett Ajello, 510-748-2742 o
Sr.
Communications Manager
510-501-5768 m
Email Contact
or
SutherlandGold
Group for Jaunt
Victoria Butler, 415-848-7178 o
Email Contact
