Outdoor gear retailer The North Face will make its Hanover debut in time for Fall term, with a grand opening scheduled for Aug. 1 at the 63 South Main Street storefront that formerly housed Foxtails and Cotton Crew.
Zimmermanns, a family-owned winter sports merchant with locations in Nashua, N.H., and the Crotched Mountain Ski Area, will operate the Hanover North Face store.
"[I]t's not going to be your typical ski shop," Zimmermanns owner Stefan Hausberger said, "it's going to be more what we call a North Face concept store," selling North Face apparel alongside other equipment, including head lamps and ice axes.
"North Face in the past few years has gone through a reinvention, if you will, and that reinvention has made them one of the most popular brands right now," Hausberger said.
Hausberger added that a friend at North Face -- a "little bird" -- inspired him to look into the Hanover locale, which boasts an affluent community, college town and a section of the Appalachian trail. "[It was] sort of meant to be," Hausberger said.
Building landlord David Clem of Lyme Properties said Zimmermanns was the first retailer with whom his company felt comfortable signing a new lease, despite the fact that the last two merchants who folded at the South Main Street location, splitting the retail space, were also locally-based.
"We like [Zimmermanns'] experience and the fact that they have two other successful branches," Clem said, adding that "it's always nice to have locally-owned operations."
Hausberger said he thinks the success of the store lies in involving the Hanover community, and that being locally-based means that "it's not like you have a steam-roller, no-personality" retailer in the area.
"The advantage of being a mom-and-pop-type thing is the sense that we are not controlled by corporate strings," Hausberger said. "We can set up the store however we want -- if we want to diversify, we can do that."
Hausberger said Zimmermanns plans on integrating the North Face store into the Hanover community by working with the Dartmouth Outing Club and the rest of the College.
"The people want the brand -- they don't necessarily want corporate America in their town," Hausberger said.
In early 2002, an outdoor gear outlet extension of Dartmouth Co-op closed its doors after eight years of struggling in the same location, but Clem said he is confident in the North Face brand.
"It's also true that [Eastern Mountain Sports] and L.L. Bean continue to try to penetrate this market," Clem said, "[but] North Face has a very strong identity and we've been aware that they've wanted to have a store in Hanover for some time."
Clem said construction to reconfigure the interior of the 3,000-square-foot store should be complete by July 1.
