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.