My Life In Travel: David Whetstone
David Whetstone leads collaborations at The North Face, working with partners like Aimé Leon Dore to reimagine its heritage outdoor pieces for a new generation. From his base in Denver, he's also on a mission to visit every national park in America. We asked him about family travels, business trips and how he makes them work.
I never expected to land in Denver. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, lived in California for seven years, and somehow ended up here. One of the amazing things about Denver is its proximity to places that are uniquely special. Five and a half hours west and you're in Moab. Five and a half hours south and you're in Santa Fe. We've not explored north yet – Wyoming and Montana are calling for this spring and summer.
Moab is one of my favourite places. It's just so unique because it’s close to both Canyonlands and Arches. The rock formations and the colouring are the most beautiful, and for us to expose that to our kids is really important. There are also some great trails with dinosaur tracks and petroglyphs. We actually stopped in Moab on our drive from San Francisco to Denver when we were moving. My wife was seven months pregnant, and we did one of the famous hikes in Arches. It was very cold, but the place just has a special energy. To go somewhere that feels completely different from where you're living really helps us all reset.
We try to build trips that are both cultural and nature-centric. Our most recent family trip was to Santa Fe and then Saguaro National Park. The kids like the art museums and galleries and shops of places like Santa Fe, but then we can experience the cacti in Saguaro – you feel like you're in a Dr Seuss book.
We have a goal of going to all of the national parks here. There are 63, and we've been to 13 or 14 of them now. I think we'll knock off a few more in our Wyoming to Montana trip this summer. We did Joshua Tree as our son was just turning two, and it was fantastic. In a way, Saguaro had a little bit of the same, just all these cacti lined up.
The road trip is really part of it. Five and a half hours feels like a nice distance. We listen to music, podcasts, stories, silly stories for the kids. We thought it was five and a half to Saguaro from Santa Fe, but it turned out to be seven and a half – that was quite challenging.
There are cool places closer to Denver too. We've got Boulder 40 minutes northwest, from where you can go a little bit more into Rocky Mountain National Park. Just outside town, we’ve got Red Rocks. It's a world-famous concert venue, but it also has beautiful hikes and trails. More and more of our Sundays have been kicking off there because it gives the feeling of being somewhere else, but it’s so close.
Telluride and Aspen in the summer are just incredible. My wife's a florist, so she gets to experience these mountain towns quite a bit in the summer. Often the kids and I will go meet her at the end of her week. Everyone talks about Aspen in the winter, but we’re summer outdoors people and we’ve come to love it.
To find out what I like and don’t like about them, I integrate the pieces we’re working on into my daily life. I’m out hiking with the kids most weekends at the moment, and we’re wearing our new Casentino pieces. They’re super warm but, because it’s a natural fabric, there’s a bit of breathability. I can wear mine in New York City and feel protected but not too hot as I’m moving through stores and meetings. But it works in the Rockies too. It’s nice to have something that’s functional but doesn’t scream performance.
We’re always looking for ways to elevate our classic styles. We’ve operated between performance and lifestyle for many years, ever since our products that were built for mountains – like the Denali jacket – were adopted by contemporary culture in the ’90s. Casentino gives us an iconic visual with that highly curled texture, but it also has those functional properties. The definition of performance has changed a bit since Casentino was invented in an agricultural context in the 1580s, but it still has that ability to trap warmth and resist water because its fibres are woven so tight. Having already been through the process of approving the Casentino mill for our Aimé Leon Dore collaboration, it feels like a nice fit for us.
/https%3A%2F%2Fslman.com%2Fsites%2Fslman%2Ffiles%2Farticles%2F2026%2F01%2Fsl-man-david-whetstone-interview-jbrownell9-saguaro-national-park-full-bleed.jpg?itok=Nk5bYbQU)
Travelling in style is just about being comfortable and being yourself. Yesterday I was in LA, and I ran into someone who said, “Oh, have I seen you wearing that before?” I was like, “I don't think so, I actually just got this piece.” But they said, “It just looks like something that's already in your closet.” And I think that’s it for me. When I travel, I'm always trying to be as myself as possible. I don't want to feel like I'm in a travel costume.
My travel essentials include short- and long-sleeve white tees for layering, and a classic pair of jeans. Then I've always got The North Face outerwear to go with them – I’m really enjoying our Red Box pieces at the moment. I also like to take one thing that's new with me if I can – it's like I'm trying it outside of my normal space. Tech wise, it's two pairs of AirPods in case one dies, extra chargers, and I'm a big flosser, so three cases of floss.
In Ho Chi Minh City, there’s a restaurant called Mặn Mòi. It’s a beautiful, green indoor-outdoor space where there’s traditional Vietnamese food. We often go to our vendors in Vietnam when we’re working through product challenges. We have to work quickly. When there’s a chance to slow down as a team at the end of one of those weeks, it’s special. And Mặn Mòi just feels so warm and easy. There’s great pho, grilled pork, vermicelli, amazing squid, and smoky cocktails. We go every time now.
To have places in faraway cities that you can count on is something I really value. I always stay at the same hotel in Paris. It's just across the river from the Marais, where most of our work is. Every morning, you're starting your day walking across the river. Getting into a routine in other cities is important to me, though of course I’m trying to open up newness each time as well.
Visit TheNorthFace.com
DISCLAIMER: We endeavour to always credit the correct original source of every image we use. If you think a credit may be incorrect, please contact us at [email protected].
/https%3A%2F%2Fslman.com%2Fsites%2Fslman%2Ffiles%2Fwebsite-images%2F2024%2F06%2Fmaiya03-1.jpg?itok=3cyHBZz4)
