Icebreaker (clothing)

Icebreaker

Type	Private
Industry	Clothing manufacture
Founded	Wellington, New Zealand 1994
Headquarters	Auckland, New Zealand
Key people	Rob Fyfe, CEO , Jeremy Moon, Founder
Products	Icebreaker clothing, socks and accessories
Number of employees	400 (globally)
Website	www.icebreaker.com

Icebreaker is a privately held merino wool outdoor and sport clothing designer and manufacturer, headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. It was founded in 1994 by Jeremy Moon, and now supplies its clothing to more than 4,700 stores in 50 countries. The company began by specialising in the production of merino base layer long underwear.

Icebreaker started when, in 1994, an American girlfriend introduced Jeremy Moon, then 24, to a merino wool farmer she had stayed with as she backpacked around New Zealand. Brian and Fiona Brakenridge lived on the remote Pohuenui Island in Marlborough with their two sons Ben and Sam and 5,000 sheep. They had developed some prototype thermal underwear made from 100% pure New Zealand merino wool, a fibre that was then of such little value that it was sold at low cost to be blended with traditional wool.

Icebreaker began selling its products in New Zealand, followed by Australia. The company has been growing in Europe and acquiring its distributors there. In 2010, one in every three Icebreaker garments is now sold in Europe, now one of Icebreaker’s largest markets. In 2010 company sales were approximately $100 million. In 2014 company sales were approximately $200 million.

The company’s first United States headquarters were in Santa Barbara, California and then in Sun Valley, Idaho. It moved offices to Portland, Oregon in 2007 and, in December 2008 combined its U.S. sales and marketing office with its global design studio at a new headquarters at 1330 NW 14th Avenue in Portland, which is Gold certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system established by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Icebreaker sells through wholesale channels, retail stores, and its website. It opened its first retail store at the Wellington International Airport in 2005. In 2007, Icebreaker opened its first overseas TouchLab retail stores in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and Portland, Oregon, USA. In 2010, Icebreaker opened its first store in Auckland and its first independent store in Europe, in collaboration with Travel Store SARL as retail partner, at 21st Avenue Michel Croz, Chamonix, Mont-Blanc, France. The company opened its first store in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City in November 2010, to be followed by continued retail expansion.