Icebreaker Launches Versatile Spring/Summer ’12 Offering

Icebreaker Launches Versatile Spring/Summer ’12 Offering

– From new GT performance athletic styles to Black Sheep luxury merino sweaters, Journeys lightweight/lifestyle layering system and women’s Siren and Sprite underwear styles –

Wellington, New Zealand – Icebreaker, the New Zealand company that pioneered the merino wool adventure apparel category, will debut a versatile new offering of men’s and women’s merino apparel at The Outdoor Show in Friedrichschafen, Germany, 14-17 July 2011, and the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2011 in Salt Late City, Utah in the United States, 4-7 August 2011.

Icebreaker GT

New for Spring/Summer 2012 are run shorts and bike jerseys, part of Icebreaker’s performance range, which includes Icebreaker GT, a comprehensive collection for a broad variety of active sports – running, adventure racing, road biking, trail riding and gym work-outs.

For road runners, new Icebreaker GT garments include the Rush Tank and Rush V for women and the Ace Tank for men. The new Quest series of short-sleeve tees, short-sleeve zip tops and long-sleeve zip tops for men and women are ideal for multisport events, and the women’s Dart Short and Stride Short will suit any sport.

Icebreaker has retained GT Bike, its specialist collection of styles for road bikers and mountain bikers, which has been getting rave reviews from cyclists and media around the world since its introduction in 2011. For Spring/Summer 2012, the collection uses GT150 – Icebreaker’s lightest weight of fabric – to create summer-weight tops that excel in the heat.

GT Bike tops for women now feature stylish nature-inspired prints, which take a contemporary approach to bike apparel graphics.

Icebreaker GT and GT Bike give casual and competitive athletes the ability to get out of the synthetics that dominate the market and into merino technical sportswear, which resists odour, is soft and lightweight, dries fast, and keeps athletes cool and dry.

Black Sheep

Icebreaker is also launching Black Sheep, its softest, finest range of luxury merino sweaters for men and women. The collection is part of Icebreaker’s Journeys range of soft, lightweight tees, sweaters, dresses and cover-ups.

Black Sheep is made from an exceptionally fine micron of merino wool, grown in New Zealand’s rugged Southern Alps. The merino is knitted into a fine gauge to create a stylish collection of exclusive knitwear.

Icebreaker Product Design Director Keryn Francisco says sourcing premium merino wool was essential in creating the Black Sheep series.

“Winemakers determine the highest quality grapes and barrels to make their highly coveted reserve wine. We did the same for our Black Sheep styles,” says Francisco.

“We worked with sheep stations that produce some of the finest merino in New Zealand. The resulting garments are absolutely stunning both in how they look and how they feel.”

Black Sheep features four styles for men: the LS Aries Crewe, the LS Aries V, the LS Aries Cardigan and the Aries Hood. Two Black Sheep styles for women, the LS Athena V and the LS Athena Boatneck, combine lightweight luxury with contemporary elegance.

Special garment features in the Black Sheep series include raglan sleeves with fully-fashioned details, shoulder darts, ergonomic side seams for a superior fit, and ribbing at the hem, cuff and neckline.

Journeys Range

Icebreaker is also introducing Journeys, a lightweight, lifestyle layering system, which offers elegant versatility and includes lightweight dresses and wraps, sun-drenched colours and striking prints.

Francisco says the garments were designed to wear together as well as work perfectly as solo layers for urban and expedition travel: “We created all pieces in the Journeys collection with the other pieces in mind, so they layer beautifully together. There are so many things that make this collection ideal for travel, from the fun colour pops to the chafe-free seam placement.”

Top new styles from Journey for women include the long Cruise Cardigan and Bliss Wrap, perfect for laying over tanks and tees. The sporty Cruise Dress has racerback styling and a dropped armhole, for layering over a cami, and the on-trend Breeze Dress has a hood an adjustable draw-cord at the sleeves.

There’s a new tank, scoop-neck, v-neck, polo and Henley, with a choice of vivid colours, stripes and graphics. The assortment also welcomes the travel-friendly Breeze Skirt and the Breeze ¾ Pant.

For men, Icebreaker created the Quattro Hood as a relaxed street-wear piece. Other new key pieces are the SS Quattro, SS Quattro Polo and Tech Polo.

Nature Range of Women’s Merino Apparel Evolves

Finally for Spring/Summer 2012, Icebreaker has evolved its Nature range into a comprehensive collection of stylish, comfortable, natural merino underwear for women.

Nature was previously a layering system with two weights, for underwear and base layers, but is now a complete women’s underwear range made from Icebreaker’s lightest merino fabric. The styles include a touch of LYCRA®, to give women an exceptionally comfortable fabric that stretches and moves along with them.

The assortment includes two lines: Siren, a luxurious merino version of classic underwear styles, and Sprite, a collection of sporty, sexy styles.

Spring/Summer 2012 will be the first season for bras to be introduced into the Nature collection, in both the Siren and Sprite series. Designed for low impact activity, the new bras give women the opportunity to wear silky-soft Icebreaker merino garments next to their skin, from top to toe.

The new Sprite series layers athletic, tomboy designs over feminine curves with the addition of playful pop colours. The series launches with the Sprite Racerback Bra, a pull-over style with a deep v-neck and a wide Icebreaker-branded elastic band. The new Sprite Racerback Tank follows the lines and cut of the bra. The Sprite Hot Pant features a low-rise boy-short design with an Icebreaker-branded waistband. All three styles have contrast stripe detail along the side seams.

For the Siren series, Icebreaker introduces the Siren Bra, a pull-over, fully-lined bra in sizes extra small to extra large. Other Siren top styles include updated designs in the Siren Cami, the scoop-neck Siren Tank, and the v-neck Siren Shelf Cami. New in bottoms, the Siren Hipkini features a low rise and full coverage in the back. In previous seasons, all Nature garments included nature-inspired prints, but the Siren series now includes garments without prints.

EDITORS NOTE: Images from the Spring/Summer 2012 line are available for your use here. For more details about the season’s products, see our full press releases here. Please let us know how we can help further.

If you need more information, images or samples of garments, please contact http://media.icebreaker.com/index.php?s=64.



About Icebreaker

Launched in 1994, Icebreaker was the first company in the world to develop a merino fibre layering system for the outdoors. It was also the first outdoor apparel company in the world to source merino directly from growers, a system it began in 1997. The Icebreaker apparel system includes underwear, mid layer garments, outerwear, socks and accessories. There are outdoor, technical and lifestyle categories, each with its own specific fabrics and design details. Icebreaker is sold in more than 3,000 stores in 37 countries.

Based in Wellington, New Zealand, Icebreaker uses only pure merino handpicked from 140 high country stations in the country’s Southern Alps to create adventure clothing for women, men and kids that combines nature’s work with human technology and design. The company is committed to sustainability, ethical manufacturing and animal welfare. In 2008 the company launched “Icebreaker Baacode,” a pioneering supply chain transparency and traceability program. Each Icebreaker includes a unique Baacode, which enables customers to trace the garment online from rearing the sheep through to each stage of the supply chain process.


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