Icebreaker - Pure Merino

Congratulations to our Graphic Design team in our Wellington Head Office.  It was announced today that 3 of our designs are finalists in the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design Awards 2010.

Nice work guys!

Check out their stunning work here:
Icebreaker GT Technical Baselayer Packaging
Icebreaker Merino Socks Packaging
Icebreaker Office Interior Art

Over the past few years, for everyone that signs up to our email database, we plant a tree for them through Trees for the Future.

Trees for the Future work with people to improve livelihoods and restore degraded lands to sustainable productivity through planting beneficial trees.

We think it’s a great venture and in the past year we’ve planted 22,603 trees for you all.  We want to plant even more in the next year, so please tell your friends about our email sign up programme - not only will they get to be the first to find out all about our latest news and special offers, but they can make a difference and help communities around the world.

- Brooke Riley, Icebreaker Global Web Project Manager

Our CEO Jeremy Moon is profiled as an “evangelist in sheep’s clothing” in the latest Financial Times article on Icebreaker’s search for its first Touch_Lab_ (retail store) in New York City.

We plan to expand our retail presence internationally in the next five years, starting with New York later this year; and the Financial Times article dives deep into Icebreaker’s core principles to understand how we will make this happen.

Click here to read the latest article about Icebreaker in the Financial Times.  Simply sign up for the free service to access the article.

Our new season’s range has just gone live on our website - check it our here.  There’s some awesome new innovations this season, make sure you’re one of the first to get your hands on some.  Find a retailer.

Northern Hemisphere Spring/Summer 10 Catalogue Cover

Southern Hemisphere Fall/Winter 10 Catalogue Cover

Each month we draw a winner at random from our email database and send them a free Icebreaker for their troubles.  Are you signed up to be in the draw?  What about your mates?

You can check out our latest winners and sign up here if you haven’t already.

We’ll also plant a tree for you through Trees for the Future if you sign up, plus you’ll get to be the first in the know with all things Icebreaker.

The New Zealand BeST Design Awards were held on Friday night and the awesome Icebreaker design team took away three of the highly coveted awards.

We were awarded bronze awards for our Fall Winter 2009 catalogue; for our new Bodyfit+ packaging; and for the Ewe Tunes viral e-campaign we ran over the holidays. Great news!

Nice work team, sausage rolls all round at morning tea today!
 

Congratulations to Amy Maguire - she won herself a limited edition Icebreaker bag this week!

We had so many great comments on this blog, our facebook page, and loads of RT’s on twitter. Thanks to everyone who entered - it was great to hear from you all!

Keep the comments coming - we love to hear from you…and we will have more exclusive Icebreaker goodies to giveaway over the next few months.

It’s Friday afternoon and a few of the All Blacks dropped in to see us at Icebreaker HQ. Some of the Icebreaker staff decided to jump on their backs like they would our Ramotaur! 

The All Blacks play the Australian Wallabies tomorrow night at the stadium in Wellington - go boys!

L2R: Jason Eaton, Andrew Hore and Tony Woodcock

Some exciting changes have been taking place with the Icebreaker Flock recently - here’s a quick update:

Deb Boswell, our US Marketing Manager Queen, has taken on the new role of Director of Marketing - North America. Based in our Portland Office, Deb will now look after the marketing teams in both the US and Canada - which we are sure will test her French linguistic skills. Deb spent a few of her teenage years in Belgium…so we are really counting on that paying off!

Sadly, we have said goodbye to our beloved Canadian Marketing Manager, Frith Campbell, who decided to return home to New Zealand. Frith has done an outstanding job in her role and has contributed greatly to the success that Icebreaker has achieved in the Canadian market. Thanks a TON Frith!!

Kent Hawkins has replaced Frith as our new Canadian Marketing Manager, based in our Vancouver office. Not only does Kent have a master’s degree in environmental design and a Bachelor of Commerce - but he is also a professional ski guide…so we are all headed to the Vancouver office for ski lessons from him sometime soon.

Steve Gehlen has joined the team as our General Manager - Global E-Commerce working out of our Portland office. Steve is pretty awesome - he launched the original Nike.com site (among many others), and ran his own successful Internet business. Steve is a keen runner and a self confessed internet “geek” (don’t worry - he does speak English most the time), and is going to get our online presence cranking - so watch out for us on the web.

Michelle Mitchell and Rosie Futschek have rejoined the flock to lead our Global Kids business, and boy are we excited to see these familiar faces back around the office.

Michelle started working for Icebreaker in 1996 bravely leaving behind her career in law to sell a completely unknown brand of merino clothing called Icebreaker. Over the 11 years she worked for Icebreaker, Michelle led various areas of the business including the Marketing department, the Product Design and Development team, New Zealand, Australia, HR, IP, Canada, E-commerce and Retail. So….she has pretty much put her finger in every pie possible.

Rosie started with Icebreaker in 2003 and spent five years in the role of South Island Account Manager, before leaving to have her gorgeous daughter Mila. Both mothers themselves, with Michelle as General Manager - Kids, and Rosie as Product Line Manager Kids, together they will help introduce the joys of merino to youngsters from the beautiful Wanaka office.

And Shane Woonton has started as our Global Sales Operations Manager, based in our head office here in Wellington. Most recently he was Merchandise Manager for Outdoor Performance Pty Ltd which manages the Columbia, Mountain Hardwear and Montrail brands in Australia and NZ. An outdoor enthusiast, Shane is also a product geek (great for us!).

So…welcome to all our new (and returning) flock. They have already started (and we might even start paying them soon too).

Are ewe following us on twitter? Have ewe joined our official facebook group? Add icebreakernz and we will keep you up to date with all of the Icebreaker fun and shenanigans that we like to get up to.

We always love to hear stories about what adventures you are undertaking in your Icebreaker - so tweet or bleat us back!

Together we are shearing the Icebreaker love around the globe!

P.S. not on our database? Sign up now and we will plant a tree for you.