Icebreaker will be moving its U.S. customer service, marketing and operations center from Santa Barbara, California to Sun Valley, Idaho. As of June 2005, Icebreaker USA will complete its transition to Sun Valley, an area that embodies the company’s mountain culture.

“Sun Valley is an epicenter of the Icebreaker lifestyle, and we wanted to provide that lifestyle to our US-based team”, said Sun Valley native Troy Ballard, former national sales director for Salomon, now US market manager for Icebreaker. “This offers an opportunity for our US team to have some fun in the mountains and be close to our users”. The new Icebreaker US office will be located in, Ketchum, Idaho.

“It’s certainly an incentive to spend even more time in the US!” adds Jeremy Moon, Icebreaker’s CEO and Founder. “Our business for Fall 05 has tripled after great sell-through in Fall 04. We are investing heavily to build our company so we can deliver great service to our 200 key outdoor and snowsports stores. The team is primarily US nationals but we have thrown in the odd kiwi accent to keep everyone in line”.

Icebreaker says it was the first company in the world to develop a merino wool layering system for the outdoors, and launched the category in 1994. Icebreaker also says it was also the first outdoor apparel company in the world to source merino direct from growers, pioneering the process in 1997. There are now seven distinct pure merino fabrics in the Icebreaker system covering underwear, mid layer, and outerwear. Icebreaker is currently distributed to over 1400 stores in 20 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Australasia, and North America.