The itinerary involved face-to-face time with 120 growers and included morning tea in Ida Valley Station’s musterers’ hut, afternoon smoko in the woolshed at Quailburn Downs, near Omarama, and a trip to Beaumont Station.
For Neil Baker, Icebreaker’s senior global creative director, the trip to New Zealand had been "an extraordinary source of inspiration".
"Merino wool is a remarkable fibre and meeting the growers and witnessing first hand the passion and dedication they put into their work, it’s easy to see how it reflects our approach to our important brand purpose.
"This fibre has been at the core of Icebreaker’s DNA from the very beginning. We owe our success to our growers and we’ll be relying on them as we make progress in our movement towards a more natural way of living," he said.
He was joined by Jan Van Mossevelde, global president Smartwool and Icebreaker, and Margot Hannaford, country manager New Zealand and Australia.
Smartwool and Icebreaker are longtime partners of The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM). In 2017, Icebreaker signed the longest ever supply contract with New Zealand wool growers, which NZM said was worth $100 million over 10 years.
Smartwool and Icebreaker’s parent company, VF Corporation, has invested in several industry programmes through NZM. At present, it is enabling a three-year soil-monitoring project across 30 properties, alongside the annual VF One-Wool Shearing Cadetship which aims to secure the future of the industry by training young shearers and wool classers.
