The North Face recently introduced its Universal collection, a five-piece capsule of camping essentials built from the ground up around universal design principles — meaning gear conceived not just for the average able-bodied camper, but for every kind of human who wants to spend time outside.
The collection, developed in partnership with adaptive athletes Vasu Sojitra and Maureen Beck, includes a sleeping bag, a daypack, a brimmer hat and a pair of camp shoes alongside its centerpiece: a three-season tent.
The idea, as Fast Company reports, grew out of a simple recognition from the brand’s design team that the disabled community had long been overlooked by camping gear makers.
But here’s the thing — the new Universal Wawona 3 Tent doesn’t read like a niche accessibility product. Instead, in many ways, it looks like the car-camping tent that more casual outdoor fans have craved.
Simplifying the setup
Setting up a tent is one of those tasks that sounds simple until you’re doing it at dusk in the wind with color-coded poles that all look the same in low light.
The North Face addressed that frustration directly with the Wawona 3: all three poles are identical in length and fully interchangeable, so there’s no matching required.
Rather than threading poles through frustrating grommets at each corner, the tent also uses broad fabric sleeves — a change that requires noticeably less dexterity and, as REI notes in its first-look coverage, makes the tent easy enough to put up with mittens on.
The rainfly is built in and rolls back rather than requiring a separate setup step, and the large, reflective pole sleeves glow under a headlamp, making the whole process more manageable after dark. When it’s time to pack up, the tent fits inside a bag large enough to actually use without a fight.
