Icebreaker - Pure Merino

Your daily kick in the pants…  Jeremy Moon features on Rattle Ya Dags.

Taking a more leisurely lead up to Coast to Coast this year, and knowing that I am only doing half, has seen me enjoy all of my training, but left me slightly under-trained for the event!

Instead of slogging away with early morning starts, lunchtime training sessions, and weekend brick sessions like last year, this year I’ve relied almost entirely on gentle lunchtime runs, the occasional ride around the bays (on nice days, heaps of those in Wellington!) and a few weekend “long” runs.

Hopefully though, my Coast to Coast training “cramming” long weekend two weeks back has set me up to get through the run and cycle in one piece!

This was how it went:
• Friday - 12k run in Christchurch - wearing my favourite Icebreaker GT 150 Dash zip
• Saturday - 100k cycle from Queenstown to Glenorchy and back - wear testing our soon-to-be-released bike shorts and the same Dash zip
• Sunday - gentle trot along the shores of lake Wakatipu - again in the same top
• Tuesday - Coast to Coast run leg - yep, still in the same Dash Zip (which I also slept in Monday night)
• Wednesday - hobble around the office… then 2 hour massage

Fingers crossed that will do the trick!

Even after all of that, my Icebreaker top was still smelling sweet!

Just ask my flatmates, who I threw it at when I got home. “Ew that’s gross” quickly turned to “oh my god, it doesn’t smell. At all!”

- Kimberley Gilmour, HR Manager, Icebreaker Head Office

Last week we opened our first independent Icebreaker store in Europe - in the heart of Chamonix centre. Check out the pics of our opening celebrations - and if you are nearby come and visit:

21st Avenue Michel Croz
Chamonix
Mont-Blanc
France

Hey guys - we love hearing your Icebreaker stories and checking out pictures of you in our gear.

Feel free at anytime to send your comments, stories, ideas and photos to: blog@icebreaker.com   We’d love to share it on our Blog and with other Icebreaker-ites.

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Hi guys - another year is ahead of us!  We’re back from a nice restful break over the holiday season, and are planning to make this year one of the best years in Icebreaker history.

We’re all thinking about what we want to achieve in the months ahead, and what new experiences and skills we want to discover not only for Icebreaker, but for ourselves personally.  What’s motivating you this year?  What new things do you want to discover?  And how are you going to make this year memorable and exceptional?  We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Check out a few of our staff members on the Xmas and New Year breaks, we love to get out and experience new and wonderful places, sometimes we even do it together - proving that Icebreaker is not only a great clothing system to wear, but an awesome culture to be a part of.

- Brooke Riley, Global Web Project Manager

Here at Icebreaker we know how to party and last weeks Christmas party was no exception!!!

All the Icebreaker Head Office staff were split into teams and challenged with dressing up as either Good or Evil.

In the Good corner we had a team dressed as Hell’s Angels, a S.W.A.T team, The Goodies, and the All Whites. On the Evil side we had a team of the living dead (Elvis’s), the Kubrick 8, the Spawn of Satin, and Movie Mayhem. Some of the costumes were very inventive!

What a night!

Icebreaker was featured on Shaw Television’s (Vancouver) show Urban Rush on November 17, 2009. On the show the Fall Winter 2009 clothing line was presented. Director of Marketing, Deb Boswell, speaks about the benefits of Merino clothing and the superior fabric that is chosen for Icebreaker clothing.

On the 29th of October the European Icebreaker team paid a visit to our sock factory in Mount Airy, North Carolina. We wanted to learn all about why Icebreaker socks rock!

This was also my first day with Icebreaker in my new role as the In-Store Marketing Coordinator for Germany/Norway/Sweden. What a great way to start my IB time - get my nose stuck right into socks on the very first day!

What I have learned..a hell of a lot! While Icebreaker socks may not be made out of 100% merino, they can still perform 100%. A small amount of nylon is added to provide durability and strength but the Merino wool is always in contact with the wearer’s skin! That means the wearer gets to enjoy the full benefits of Icebreaker - they are breathable, don’t stink, and control moisture. Wow!

It was amazing to see the quality of the socks and the numerous controls throughout the manufacturing process. The sock can be checked at every step along the way; from knitting to hand packaging.

It was also good to see that the company didn’t act to serious for us - it was Halloween after all and we really liked the cat and cowgirl costumes. Funny as. Not only that but they taught us how to flat foot dance to the local Blue Grass band that played for us at dinner. Not sure if us Germans quite got it but never mind.

Thanks to Darren and the crew for having us. When I’m next on the road selling great Icebreaker socks I will think of Jimmy, a factory worker at Nester With his thick North Carolina accent. As he said to me standing next to his knitting machine, “I really love the Icebreaker socks man!”

- Michaela Hanke, In-Store Marketing Coordinator, Icebreaker Germany

The ultimate fashion faux-pas is wearing the same outfit as someone else.  I thought an Icebreaker top would be a safe choice in Munford, England (an arse-end town in the middle of nowhere). Turns out I was wrong.  We are everywhere.  Fantastic.

- Dave Anderson, Chief Financial Officer (the one on the left, with his new mate Gus)

When my friend asked if I wanted to do something crazy in Queenstown I thought she meant dressing up in clown outfits and riding the gondola at midnight. Fun and Crazy!No, what she wanted to do was a 3 day 2 night hike through Mt Aspiring National park in spring…spring…the perfect time for melting snow to cause that thing called an avalanche?!

“What? Theres only 32 avalanche paths across the Routeburn track and almost all of them are on the Saddle track which is near the summit”

After reading ‘Feel the Fear but do it anyway’, training with 10kg weights in my backpack up Mt Vic daily and googling “mountain survival tips’ I was ready for the avalanche dodging adventure.

Lucky I have a wardrobe full of Icebreaker gears that have been waiting to fulfill their true purpose in life. It was time to test them out in the environments outside of the Hope Gibbons building (Icebreaker Head Office).

The first day, after 9kms, 5 hours and at 1000mtrs altitude we hit snow, lots and lots of it. It was calf deep for my fellow walkers and thigh deep for me!

“Ok guys this is getting serious, I don’t know if we should go on”
“What are you talking about, you’re covered head to toe in Icebreaker gear, surely your GTs and Bodyfits can handle a bit of snow”
“I’m nice and toasty in my 150+280+320 thanks, just not sure about how it’d save me on a slippery snow slide down the mountain!”

After some debates and the fact we met mountaineers who had turned back because of lack of crampons and ice axes, we (not just me) decided it was best if we chose life. We turned back to walk the sub-alpine tracks.

On the way down we were rewarded with stunning views of snow covered peaks, crystal blue rivers and the stunning half frozen Lake Harris, but above and beyond that, we saw an avalanche, on the next mountain peak! PHEW!

The second day we crossed 22km of beautiful valleys and native forests via Caples tracks with my Icebreaker bodyfit still smelling fresh and comfy as ever, something I can’t say about the bush Pitt toilets.

Three shower-less days and 53kms later, we emerged from the track to be greeted by Buckly Transport, the best shuttle service ever! Ian and Diane had hot coffee and cake waiting for us in their pickup van, wonderful treats after 3 days of scrogin, muesli bars and freeze dry food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We ended our little adventure with a night out in Queenstown - cold beer, hot steaks, wearing my fresh’n'clean villa dress, and with a new found appreciation and perspective on life.

 - Sarany Pan, Icebreaker Financial Systems Analyst