To think that not all 15 year olds have a North Face jacket?

[Shinyredbicycle]

DD15 is seriously nagging us about getting a North Face jacket to the tune of £300. Apparently, everyone at school has one, they're very warm, last forever etc.

I'm a bit surprised given the decidedly non-middle class demographic of her school tbh, but I have seen a lot of teens wearing them.

My first thought was that it's an insane amount of money to spend on a jacket. Her last one was from Urban Outfitters which I bought in the sale and I suppose that given that she's not going to grow very much more, I'd feel okay spending around £100 on something she really wanted.

But £300! Am I missing something here about how vital they are to a young person's life? It's quite possible that I don't really get how desirable they are.

Would like to hear from other parents of teens about how reasonable a request this is!

TIA

What’s non-middle class?

Do they feel the cold differently?

Ds14yo has a north face jacket. But we got it in the outlet in Bicester Village and it was about £65. Very warm (fleece lined jacket, rather than a puffer style coat) and showerproof but wouldn’t pay anything approaching £300 for one.

I'm in the same position with dd14 right now, I've told her I've done my Christmas shopping and she hasn't got a North Face jacket but the nagging is relentless.

Dd17 has one that she saved up and paid for herself a few years ago which was around £160 from ASOS, and apparently this isn't fair!

I can't really give any advice but I know how you feel.

They’re bang on trend at the mo- DS was desperate for one. We got him a Nike jacket that cost a 10th of the cost and looked almost identical.
he’s rather have NF obvs but that’s tough.

😂🤣

No, of course not. I meant that given how expensive these jackets are, I was surprised to hear that a school with a high % of children on FSM in one of the most deprived wards in London was full of children wearing them.

Working class kids love them. I am in NI and there are loads of memes about kids who riot having them.

The North Face have an outlet online. My coat was £140.

They're roadman wear now.

The days of TNF being a respectable outdoor brand are long gone 🤣

Of COURSE, they do!

also EVERY teens parents left them stay out till midnight, have boy/girlfriends stay over, have the latest phone, let them drink and never makes them do homework!

Us parents get this is all billy bollox - My eldest got a NF coat - I put £100 towards it and she paid for the rest from her wages - tell her to save the £200 and you'll pay the rest.

Get on Vinted and you’ll get one at a fraction of the price.

i bought my 8 year old a north face jacket for £20 on it.

he doesn’t know how cool he is 😂😂

Lots of kids have them at my 11 yr olds school. I got one from Vinted. Kept looking and found a good value one. Every kid seems to have a black puffer of some kind, not all NF.

I'm in England but NF puffa jackets are associated with being a road man. Don't know if that slang is the same in Northern Ireland

One of my dc has one but it was £80 new on ebay as a Christmas gift from her dad.

Maybe all these other kids have the cheap version as opposed to the £300 version.

I got one kids ones of Sara ok they aren’t official but look the part and for fraction of the price as long as you don’t mind waiting

I have no idea what a road man is.

Is like a highway man, but modern?

My immediate thought is the high risk of it getting stolen if they’re going to be wearing it to school. My second thought is trying to find a second hand one on eBay or Vinted.

This meme cracks me up.

Yes, I was looking at second hand. My last coat was £15 from ebay, but I appreciate that she has a different outlook to me.

DD is convinced that anything second-hand would be a fake (which I think well, what's to complain about, but there obviously is lots to when you're 15).

A lot of the TNF jackets are fake, by the way.

They’re about £30 plus off DHGate and a lot of them are deceiving, even close up.

Tell her to find one for you to bid on on eBay. Better for the planet and your bank account!

I know! I had some North Face stuff back in the 1990s when I did some hard-core trekking.

They always look a bit overkill for waiting for the bus, but what do I know?

Teenagers ALWAYS pull the "everyone else has one" line. It's not usually the case. Maybe a lot of their classmates do, but it's not going to be "everyone" and some of those who do only have one because their parents fell for the line. Given that you're the one paying for it, you'll need to be assured that the product is worthwhile for reasons of utility (keeps your kid extra snug) and economy (lasts longer even if she grows some more, doesn't fall apart after a couple of winters), rather than fashion.

What I did with DS1, who does like his branded stuff, when he was around that age was agree to pay x for an item of clothing, and if he wanted one that cost x + y the excess had to be made up from pocket money or (part of) the next Christmas/birthday(s). Thus it was up to him to decide how much the brand premium was worth.

Yeh, you’ll probably get a lot of faux naïveté and inverted snobbery on here but they are definitely ubiquitous amongst working class teens. It’s a brand/status thing. They’re designed for mountain climbing so are complete overkill for loitering outside the local shops, having said that they are very warm and well made and last well. North face has the working class market cornered but I think Montane and mountain equipment are becoming the cool brands to have amongst the middle class now though.

Does it have to be one of expensive ones? DS has one that is €110 (although it was bought for less than that last year on Black Friday.