History
Icebreaker started by accident when, in 1994, an American girlfriend introduced Jeremy Moon, then 24, to a merino wool farmer she had stayed with as she backpacked around New Zealand. Brian Brakenridge lived on the remote Pohuenui Island in Marlborough, New Zealand with his family and 8,000 sheep. He had developed some prototype thermal underwear made from 100% pure New Zealand merino wool, a fibre that was then of such little value that it was sold at low cost to be blended with traditional wool.
Icebreaker began selling its products in New Zealand, followed by Australia. The company has been growing in Europe and acquiring its distributors there. In 2010, one in every three Icebreaker garments is now sold in Europe, now one of Icebreaker’s largest markets. In 2010 company sales were approximately $100 million.
The company’s first United States headquarters were in Santa Barbara, California and then in Sun Valley, Idaho. It moved offices to Portland, Oregon in 2007 and, in December 2008 combined its U.S. sales and marketing office with its global design studio at a new headquarters at 1330 NW 14th Avenue in Portland, which is Gold certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system established by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Icebreaker sells through wholesale channels and direct retail. It opened its first retail store at the Wellington, New Zealand, airport in 2005. In 2007, Icebreaker opened its first overseas Touch_Lab retail stores in Montreal, Canada, and Portland, Oregon, USA. In 2010, Icebreaker opened its first store in Auckland, New Zealand and its first independent store in Europe, in collaboration with Travel Store SARL as retail partner, at 21st Avenue Michel Croz, Chamonix, Mont-Blanc, France. The company opened its first store in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, New York in November 2010, to be followed by continued retail expansion.
Icebreaker has been the subject of two case studies by Harvard Business School. In 2009, the New Zealand Herald named Icebreaker's Moon one of the country's top business leaders.
Icebreaker has moved its manufacturing from New Zealand to China. It commenced trials to move production to China in 2003 and delivered first product from offshore manufacture in early 2004. Icebreaker then used a phased approach over the following 2–3 years to ensure impact on NZ manufacturing was minimal. Socks are all manufactured in the USA.
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