Icebreaker - Pure Merino

In the name of science, we forced ourselves to have a quick sniff under the last four competitors’ armpits. This took some convincing as the shirts are now completely filthy, and look as if they should smell bad enough to kill small animals. However… as any Icebreaker fan will know… our tees smelled surprisingly good. There was in most cases a wee whiff of body odour, combined with a faint smell of Old Spice / Lady Speed Stick deodorant (depending on gender), but you really had to try hard to smell it. And considering that we’ve put these shirts through an incredibly sweaty, dirty field test for four days… well, our Icebreaker smells like a rose garden compared to the standard cotton tees everyone is used to wearing.

At the end of our four intense days of harvesting, our seven competitors logged over two hundred working hours in Icebreaker. The winner of this year’s challenge, with the most hours in his shirt (a whopping 51), is Jochim Farms patriarch Marc Jochim. Try as we might to beat him, Dad just got up earlier and worked later than everybody else- so he deserves every bit of the Harvest Challenge fame and fortune which is now his. We took him out to the Inverness Bar and Supper Club to give him his Icebreaker prize (an awesome Beast 150 weight Argon Crewe top), meal, and trophy (a tiny merino sitting in a frying pan, to keep with the ‘Sheep in Heat’ theme).

A big thanks to Icebreaker for sponsoring the 2010 Icebreaker “Sheep in Heat” Harvest Challenge, and for making such a fantastic product. Another thank you goes out to Icebreaker from my mom, who says “I had to wash a lot less laundry this year! It was great!”

Signing off now from the Icebreaker field office in Inverness, Montana, until next year…

- Allison Jochim, Icebreaker Graphic Designer

Another competitor bites the dust! Only four left in the Harvest Challenge! And speaking of dust . . . boy is there a lot of it. Wheat chaff is everywhere, floating in the air, sticking to hair and skin, coating the insides of our lungs and turning our Icebreaker shirts from white to brown. (Before and after picture of shirts included for comparison). And STILL the shirts aren’t smelling or itching! Well, mine doesn’t smell or itch, at least - we may have to have a smell test tomorrow to confirm across the board.

- Allison Jochim, Icebreaker Graphic Designer

Progress report: things are getting interesting out here on the farm. The shirts and the competitors were pushed to the max today when we ran into a few problems (or “opportunities to excel” if you prefer the phrase). First, one combine harvester ran into a wet patch of grain, which plugged up the machine’s internal mechanics. Unplugging the machine is not a fun job - let’s just say all involved got pretty sweaty. Next, another combine ran over a large rock which happened to lodge in the intake reel so tightly that it had to be removed with a sledgehammer. (Tempers were high by this stage - I had to snap a picture of the rock from inside the cab of my moving combine so as not to stir the pot.) Third, the air conditioning went out on one of the combines for the last half of the day. SWEAT CITY! The poor driver of that combine really should get some bonus points. And finally, one other thing went wrong which I have no energy left to describe. It was also a sweaty job to fix.Our beleaguered, sweat-soaked team is hanging in there, and marveling at how no one stinks yet.

And we’re down one more competitor - the youngest participant in the Harvest Challenge claimed that her Icebreaker was giving her a “farmer’s tan”, and opted to change into a swimsuit top for better tanning purposes. Normally Icebreaker merino’s UV protection is a plus - but apparently not for tan-conscious teens. The Harvest Challenge is really separating the wheat from the chaff, if you catch my drift.

Five hardy and determined competitors remain (pictured), and we’ve all logged a similar amount of hours. May the best harvester win.

- Allison Jochim, Icebreaker Graphic Designer

The Harvest Challenge has officially begun in top form, with the thermometer at 95ºF (35ºC). No problems with the shirts yet, but we’ve got a long way to go.A few different shirt-wearing strategies are beginning to evolve . . . two competitors are trying to keep their Icebreaker shirts clean by wearing protective shirts or overalls on top of them. The rest of us feel this strategy is complete rubbish which may result in heat stroke.

In a surprise development, one competitor has withdrawn from the challenge, stating (perhaps frustratingly) that white was not her colour - but that she’d be happy to join in the spirit of the challenge by wearing one set of Icebreaker socks for the rest of the harvest. Would one propose an alternate set of rules to an Olympic judge, or to Simon Cowell? Absolutely not. Immediate disqualification.

The standard apparel of choice for a farmer during a typical wheat harvest is the no-frills white cotton Hanes Beefy T. Cotton may be a classic, but cotton tees get notoriously stinky in the armpits, and it will be interesting to see how the merino tees measure up. One harvest veteran was asked, “How hard would it be to wear one of your white cotton t-shirts for the whole harvest?”

“Oh,” he said, and then there was a pause. “Pretty hard.”

The same harvest veteran was asked to show me his Icebreaker (hidden under a protective layer of denim)… and he busted a move straight out of a Calvin Klein ad (pictured)! Nice one Dad!

 - Allison Jochim, Icebreaker Graphic Designer

Reporting live from the Icebreaker field office in Inverness, Montana…
We’re about to give Icebreaker a wear test like it’s never had before.We know Icebreaker merino performs flawlessly on ski slopes and in the bush - not to mention on the street and at the gym. But how will it perform in the dusty, sticky, oppressively hot wheat fields of rural Montana during the Jochim family farm’s annual harvest?

Headed by Icebreaker employee Allison Jochim (fourth from left), our intrepid team of field testers are about to risk personal comfort, dignity, and basic levels of hygiene in the 2010 ICEBREAKER ‘SHEEP IN HEAT’ HARVEST CHALLENGE.

The rules are simple: whoever wears their Icebreaker 150 weight top for the most hours of the harvest will WIN (competitors may take off the top to sleep at night but may not launder it between wearings).

First prize is a free Icebreaker top, dinner for two at the bar, the 2010 Icebreaker Sheep in Heat Commemorative Champion’s Trophy, and an unending stream of praise and glory. Second place is a handshake.

Right now we’ve had a bit of rain and the wheat is not dry enough to cut, but we’re expecting to be ready to go tomorrow. We’ll also be adding a few more competitors when the out-of-town crew arrives.

And if there are any farmers reading this . . . yes the crop looks good!

After our wonderful sailing experience my family and I spent some time on the island of Crete. My dad decided it would be a fun idea to walk the Samaria Gorge - the longest gorge in Europe.

The gorge is 16 km long, starting at an altitude of 1,250m at the northern entrance, and ending at the shores of the Libyan Sea in Agia Roumeli.

Dressed in Icebreaker GT and Superfine, the family was all geared up to tackle the gorge - we had convinced ourselves it was nothing more than a “walk in the park”. Everything we read said you only needed a medium level of fitness, there was a well worn “footpath” to the end, and as it was all downhill it wasn’t very strenuous. I mean, we had all done the Tongariro Crossing, this would be a piece of cake - right?

WRONG! The guide on the bus had warned us - if you are having any knee pain within the first 4km, then turn back…it’s only going to get worse. At the 4km mark, after a very steep descent, I had rolled both of my weak ankles numerous times, and my left knee felt like it was facing the wrong way. I then started favouring my right knee, which started feeling the strain very quickly!

The terrain was definitely not what I would describe as a well worn footpath - more of an uneven rocky stony trail - often there wasn’t a trail to follow and you made it up yourself.

The hardest part was trying to beat the heat. We started the gorge at 8am but were advised to try and finish before pm as the last 3km were exposed. With temperatures in the high 30’s, walking in the blazing sun was to be avoided - so keeping a fast pace became essential.

We had a quick stop at the half way point, the ancient village of Samaria where we lunched with the Kri-Kri’s - Cretan goats that are only found in that area.

We made it through the most famous part of the gorge, the Iron Gates, where the sides of the gorge close in to a width of only four meters and soar up to a height of 500m.

We reached the 14km mark at a painful shuffle. Mum and I were experiencing bad knee pain from the constant downhill over rocks, and my feet were more than ready to get out of my trail shoes! The shoes and Icebreaker socks came off, and the jandals went on…and suddenly I thought I was hallucinating. Up ahead was a small shack with a sign “Bus to Port - 1 EURO”. Not surprisingly I was the first person on that bus for the last 1km ride to Roumeli!

We shuffled into a taverna, put our feet up, and enjoyed ice cold beers for the rest of the afternoon before a ferry took us back to Hóra Sfakíon.

Wearing Icebreaker was a saviour - the heat was intense, but our tee’s kept us cool and dry. I have no doubt that wearing Icebreaker socks saved our feet from blisters!

Luckily the knee pain only lasted a day, our calves and feet were back to normal a couple of days after that…but the photos will last forever!

- Leah Evans, Global Communications Executive

In an effort purely to make my Icebreaker colleagues extremely jealous, I thought I would share my recent experience of wearing our gorgeous Icebreaker products in extreme heat - and in a glorious location!

I have just returned from a month long holiday in the Greek Islands with my family (Mum, Dad and my brother Richard). For one of those weeks, we sailed our wee yacht, Mikinos (a Dufour 385), as part of a Nautilus Yachting flotilla around the Sporades Islands.

Highlights of the week of sailing were seeing various sites from the Mamma Mia movie - including THE church (and yes, humming the songs while we were there), having dolphins surround the boat and play around our bow, and visiting gorgeous quaint Greek villages on the islands of Skiathos, Skopelos, and Alonissos.

Greece was experiencing a heat wave in June (as most of Europe still is!) and temperatures averaged 35 degrees plus each day. To say that we lived in nothing but Icebreaker is an understatement!

I think our fellow yachties thought that dad only owned one t-shirt as his Icebreaker GT Velocity Crewe was pretty much his skippers uniform each day; Richard liked to pull out his Superfine tee’s or Stripe Club Polo for dinners at the local taverna’s each night; and mum and I (who are lucky enough to be the same size) simply shared Superfine tanks - together we had eight different colours!

The other members of the flotilla were amazed to hear that we had all been wearing nothing but Icebreaker for a couple of weeks, yet the garments didn’t smell.

When you are travelling and living out of a backpack, and then confined to a small yacht, space is of a premium. Being able to pack light and make the most of the garments we took was essential.

The fact that one t-shirt could take us from hoisting the sails and sweating during the day, being thrown on after a swim off the back of the boat, and then worn out for dinner at night and still look good was just awesome!

- Leah Evans, Global Communications Executive

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

Here is the pic you have all been waiting for - our latest brand image that graces the cover of our Spring Summer 2010 catalogue… What do you think?

In this epic and cinematic image, our Ramotaur and his woman come thundering over a tussock’d brow with an invading horde of merinos in tow;  It’s Han­niRAM crossing the Southern Alps. A migration to rival that of the wildebeests, masses of sheep can be seen as a raging torrent in the dry high country back­ground.  It’s high summer, the sky is devoid of ozone, the sun a razor. The tussock is bone dry and the galloping is kicking up a plume of dust. In the foreground our hero is in mid flight, his Rams leaping beside him, frozen in crystal action; each speck of flung clod pin sharp.

We asked the Canadian team to take a photo of themselves - here they are clowning around in some of our latest garments. The guys are wearing Bodyfit+ from our Winter 2009 collection, and the girls are sporting brand new Superfine tee’s from the upcoming Summer collection (2010).