Icebreaker Founder Made A Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit

July 1, 2008

Jeremy Moon, founder of the merino outdoor apparel company Icebreaker, has been named a Member of the New Zealand Order a Merit, an Order of Chivalry, for services to business. The award is among New Zealand's highest honours.

"Our honours system is a way for New Zealand to say thanks and well done to those who have served and those who have achieved. We believe that such recognition is consistent with the egalitarian character of New Zealand society and enlivens and enriches it,” reads a report by the Prime Minister's Honours Advisory Committee.

The New Zealand Royal Honours System, administered by the Honours Secretariat, is comprised of The Order of New Zealand, The New Zealand Order of Merit, and The Queen's Service Order and Medal, and a series of gallantry and bravery awards.

In 1994, marketing graduate Moon (then 25 years of age) met a merino woolgrower in a remote part of his home country of New Zealand who was developing a new technology to create a unique performance fabric. It combined the key benefits of synthetic fabrics (easy care, lightweight, quick drying) with the natural benefits of wool (warm, breathable, odor resistant, and biodegradable. The encounter led Moon to create an entirely new clothing category: merino outdoor apparel.

As chief executive officer of Icebreaker, Moon directs all major operating and business strategies for what is now the largest outdoor clothing brand in the Asia Pacific and the largest outdoor merino apparel company in the world. Icebreaker is among New Zealand's largest exporters (check). Moon chairs the Advisory Board for Better by Design, an organization that helps New Zealand companies increase their international competitiveness by integrating design principles across their businesses.

About Icebreaker

Launched in 1994, Icebreaker was the first company in the world to develop a merino wool layering system for the outdoors. It was also the first outdoor apparel company in the world to source merino direct from growers, a system it began in 1997. There are now 10 distinct pure merino fabrics in the Icebreaker system, covering underwear, mid layer, and outerwear.

Icebreaker is sold in nearly 2000 stores in 24 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Australasia and North America. Based in Wellington, New Zealand, Icebreaker uses only pure merino hand-picked from 120 high country stations in the country's Southern Alps to create edgy outdoor clothing that combines nature's work with human technology and design.