Icebreaker - Pure Merino

WOW – thanks to everyone for all the amazing entries – we didn’t realise how many socks fans we had out there. It was incredibly hard to pick the winners but Scott and Sofia are now the proud owners of a new Icebreaker socks collection.

Scott’s winning entry proved how much he has already put our socks “to the test” and was in dire need of some replacements:

Five months, four countries, two Kiwis, four feet, 8000km by motorbike in India, 27,000 vertical meters trekked in Nepal, jungles, mud, leeches, tropics, the heat of the Thar Desert, sub-zero cold, dressing for dinner at the Long Bar at Raffles in Singpore, the long, tiring flight home to Aotearoa, Customs inspections. This could read ‘how to get the most out of your socks’, or ‘One of the toughest tests a sock could be made to endure’. No matter what we put them through, our Icebreaker socks held up through this five-month adventure. Sadly, we are now having to retire part of our Icebreaker collection as our socks aren’t quite as snug as they used to be, and the hole nibbled in one by that pesky rodent in Madyha Pradesh, India, has finally defeated my attempt at darning. And they still smell a bit, umm, funky thanks to being washed in water of questionable quality to try and get rid of the Iindian road dust, grime and oil dribbling out of our Roual Enfield bullet motorbike. Pleasepleaseplease, kind Icebreaker people, grant us some new socks so we can be seen in public without people sniffing in alarm and pointing at our feet, searing our cats’ sensitive little noses and making our shoes scrabble away from us into the dark, dank recesses of our wardrobe. Our feet will love you forever.

Sofia’s winning entry touched our hearts with her salute to her grandmother, Brigit:

Honestly, I do not think that it is me. I think that the one who needs the socks collection the most is my grandmother Birgit. Well, ok, maybe except the multisport ones.

I want to salute Birgit, 78 years young. I want to say yay Birgit, you strong, independent woman with both feet firmly on the ground. This one is for your feets, living and loving in the northest of Sweden. For all your future cloudberry field days, your wintertime skiing on the hills. For your trips in the small fishing boat and all your 8 km’s biking to the closest store for milk.

I know Birgit is not climbing K2 or doing a long distance paddling tour across five continents – but that’s not what it is all about. For the time being, I just want Birgit to feel the world she knows in great socks. I want to thank her feets for the way they have inspired me and her other grandchildren to movement, action and reaction.

And for those that missed out please keep checking back for more opportunities to win Icebreaker gear through our competitions.

It’s socks week here at Icebreaker and to celebrate we’ve got a brand new collection of (adult) socks up for grabs – one men’s and one women’s. Post a comment on WHY YOU THINK YOU NEED THEM MOST and you could be in to WIN  a new Icebreaker socks collection. We’re giving away a collection of 1 x hike, 1 x run, 1 x bike, 1 x multisport and 1 x city socks to our favourite comment posted. Entries close at the end of the week, 11 August 2012, and the winners will be announced on 14 August 2012.

Terms and conditions

1. This competition is open for entry until midday in New Zealand on 12 August 2012
   
2. Contestants must be over the age of 18 years at the date of entry
3. Only one entry per email address and contestant will be accepted
4. Icebreaker’s staff, agents, contractors and their families are not permitted to enter
5. No alternative prize is available and the prize is not transferable, refundable and cannot be exchanged for cash or other Icebreaker products
6. There is one winner of a collection of 1 x hike, 1 x run, 1 x bike, 1 x multisport, 1 x city adult socks (colour and sizing is subject to availability)
7. The winner will be chosen by Icebreaker’s social media team, at its sole discretion, from comments posted and the winner will be notified by email on or about 15 August
8. The Prizewinner gives his/her permission to Icebreaker to display photos and/or publish his/her name for any promotion, advertising or any other use at Icebreaker’s sole discretion.

An inspiring and exciting message  from long boarder and Icebreaker fan  Adam Colton who, with a few of his friends, has long boarded thousands of miles through some pretty exotic places; Morocco, Peru, Bolivia, France, and  New Zealand – just to name a few! They are also already planning their next trip to long board throughout  Asia sometime this year. If you’d like to read up on their past travels and share in their future ones, these brave souls can be found at whoisadamcolton.com

“One of our most recent trips went a little something like this: 14,000 foot mountain passes, 128 kilometres of uphill riding, and a grand total of 2414 kilometres – did I mention our mode of transportation was a human powered long board?  In 2009, myself, Adam Colton, and 2 of my friends, Paul Kent and Aaron Enevoldsen set out to long board through the Andes crossing Peru and Bolivia . We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but that was an understatement. We crossed some high  peaks and harsh terrain while much of the time being completely malnourished. In order to keep our packs as light as possible we chose not to pack food and cooking utensils  which meant we depended solely the local fare we found as we roamed from  town to town. But there were many times when  cookies, stale bread and bananas  became the  main  staples of our journey. Besides our dietary downfalls, we pushed through horrible potholes, stinky tarry pavement, and cold cold  rain that chilled us all to our bones.

But our passions for the long board, for human powered transportation, documentary film making, our friendship and a damn good sense of humour is what pushed us to carry on, on  this unorthodox journey. On an arduous trip such as this; you could imagine that gear was crucial to our success. I rocked a pair of Icebreaker Bodyfit 200 Boxers and some Icebreaker Hiker Mid Crew Socks. The gear was amazing, it took some hard abuse and made it the whole trip with just a little bit of expected destruction. And let me tell you – Icebreaker merino wool Boxers control odour! After eight days straight in my BodyFit Boxers (yeah I know, its a little gross), I sat next to two pretty Australian girls at a restaurant in Potosi, Bolivia and actually had a conversation without repulsing either of them from what otherwise would have been an eight day old stench of stale perspiration! I didn’t offend anyone – I was stoked!

I invite you all to take a look at our journey – as well as our others – as they have been some of the toughest things we have ever done! But at the end of it all we were stoked – so stoked in fact that that we just completed skating across Morocco in June of 2010 and have our sights set on Nepal for October 2011.”

- Adam Colton – an Long boarding Icebreaker fan