Icebreaker is a privately-held outdoor and sport clothing

Clothing

Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...

 designer and manufacturer, headquartered in Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It was founded in 1994 by Jeremy Moon, and now supplies its clothing to 3,000 stores in more than 30 countries. The company began by specializing in the production of merino

Merino

The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...

 baselayer long underwear

Long underwear

Long underwear, also called long johns, Granny pantys, or thermal underwear, is a style of two-piece underwear with long legs and long sleeves that is normally worn during cold weather. It offers an advantage over the one-piece union suit in that the wearer can choose to wear either the top,...

.
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.