---
title: "Virtual reality: The latest weapon in the battle for your shopping dollars"
description: "North Face is among a growing group of retailers testing whether virtual-reality technology — once largely thought of as a playground for gaming nerds — can help bring in big dollars."
date: "2015-05-11"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Elise Bailey"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/bailey"
url: "https://futurism.com/virtual-reality-the-latest-weapon-in-the-battle-for-your-shopping-dollars"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
  - "Virtual Reality"
tags:
  - "virtual reality"
---

# Virtual reality: The latest weapon in the battle for your shopping dollars

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

- North Face has cleared a small area of its New York store for customers to don the headsets, which transport them to remote hiking, climbing or base-jumping locations they might otherwise never visit. The hope is that VR taps into shoppers’ deep aspirations and gets them excited about the great outdoors.
- Capturing the images needed to create these virtual-reality experiences has not been easy — or cheap. North Face says it spent five days filming in Moab and in Yosemite National Park. Some of the footage was shot by attaching a 16-lens, 360-degree 3-D camera to a drone.
- Tech giant Intel also recently debuted a “smart” dressing-room mirror that allows shoppers to change the color of their sweater with a wave of a hand, while Marriott guests can put on VR goggles and headphones and be transported to destinations in Hawaii or London for an up-close tour.