Gretchen is New Zealander at Icebreaker’s new TouchLab Store in SoHo, making an amazing impact with our customers and staff. Here’s how this Kiwi travelled 8,800 miles (metric conversion below) to the Big Apple…When they heard my decision I was shot looks of horror, fear and bewilderment. They spoke of danger, they thought too much, and they asked too many questions. I was scrutinised for my sanity, some even feared for my life. I didn’t argue with their concerns, I agreed with them all. Yes I was being impractical, probably irrational, and definitely emotional. But still, they couldn’t make me change my mind and the dumbest decision I’ve ever made in my life was about to become a brilliant reality.
On 8 August 2010, I moved to a city I’d never been before in a country I’d never been before. I had nowhere to live, I didn’t know a soul, and I didn’t have a job. And not just any city, mind you, this was New York City, and it was suffering from the largest economic recession it had seen in 20 years.
With a story like that, I don’t blame people for wondering why the hell I did it. But even though I am asked daily, and have thought about it extensively, the truth is I don’t really know why I am here. It’s probably a combination of childhood pipedreams, too many years studying and the desire to run from life rather than make some real grownup decisions.
What I do know is that while all the other foreigners around me were visiting the Statue of Liberty, seeing the bright lights of Times Square, and wandering through Central Park, and all my classmates from university were settling into amazing post-grad jobs and setting up their lives as the new young professionals, I was both physically and emotionally lost, depressed and exhausted trying to find work and wondering why I couldn’t have been slightly more rational with my life choices.
How I came to be working at Icebreaker could be told from a myriad of places over a myriad of years. Possibly with a sheep called Charles. Possibly with five years of scarfie living and no central heating. Possibly with several mysterious parcels that landed on my doorstep with no note or return address. But probably with the fact that I am a marketing geek, have a degree from the same department as the founder of Icebreaker, and have written several essays using this brand as a case study. So Icebreaker has been a part of my life for a while. It’s a brand I respect, it’s a product I love, and it’s what I chose to Google when I needed help the most.
Google told me that Icebreaker was opening a flagship store in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. Light bulb moment, of course they would need some marketing for this new store right? So I emailed some people I found on the website and tried to weasel my way in. In one sense it worked, in the other it didn’t. I didn’t get to help with the marketing but I did score myself an invite to the store opening. (Actually as I write this there is still only one person in my store who actually knows I was there. Surprise guys, I did some snooping on you – and I have the photo with Helen Clark to prove it). I learned the name of the manager, gathered some useful info and came back the next day with an American ‘resume’.
Working at Icebreaker is a bit of a mad experience. It’s hard to explain the identity crisis that is being a New Zealander in a New Zealand store in the United States of America. Is this my home ground or theirs? But mainly working for Icebreaker is great fun and full of great moments.
I have explained that we don’t eat Kiwis because they are an endangered bird, and that we are called Kiwis because of said bird, not because of a green fuzzy fruit. There was the awkward moment when a guy at the store thought that “us Kiwi’s were awesome” because we like to say ‘ass’ when someone says sweet. Like my ten-minute conversation with the woman who wanted to know about the Icebreaker Baacode but I couldn’t use the word farm to describe it as she just couldn’t fathom what it was I was saying. And how the only way I can communicate with my American colleagues is to adopt an “R” rolling accent that only a true Southlander could be proud of.
On a personal note I am constantly amazed at the number of people for which Icebreaker is a destination store, not a stumble across. They come here because they know us. They each have their own story and they are proud to be a part of the Icebreaker family. The fact that I can be working for a New Zealand company with such a persona 14000 kilometres away from its origin just confounds that there is a reason for me being here.
Six months ago I made a leap of faith. But I now know that you can only leap so far before needing something to grab on to. So while I would never give up the crazy experience that was coming here, it’s not something I wish to replicate any time soon and hope to be with Icebreaker for a while yet.
