At next month’s EUROPEAN OUTDOOR SUMMIT, the Agenda includes a presentation by Nick Barber, Global Product Lead at ICEBREAKER, on putting nature at the heart of a business strategy.
Now owned by VF Corporation, Icebreaker was established in 1994, specialising in the creation of merino base layers and motivated by the drivers of sustainability and animal welfare as well as environmental and social ethics. As the outdoor industry depends on the outdoor environment to inspire customers, it’s a concept that fits seamlessly into the business strategy themes of this year’s Summit.
Based in Ticino, Switzerland, Barber is a brand strategist and creative business leader. After graduating with a BA(Hons) in fashion, he began his design career in 1998 with the iconic technical outerwear brand Henri Lloyd before moving on to product leadership positions with sports and lifestyle brands including Umbro, Puma and Timberland.
Whilst at the latter, he led a cross-functional team to re-think the product lifecycle, introducing the TIMBERLOOP™ initiative which won the ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION Award for Circular Economy at the 2022 CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards.
Committed to sustainable design, he shared his motivation for creating high-performing, responsibly designed products with Outdoor i in the latest of our ‘Words With…’ series of forward-thinking features.
What first drew you to working with sports and outdoor brands?
My family has always had a deep appreciation for the outdoors. I was born and raised in Manchester, England and as a child I spent many weekends hiking the fells and peaks of the nearby National Parks, The Peak District, Lake District and Yorkshire Dales. The weather can be unreliable there, it often rained and so protective, outdoor gear was a must have.
My dad would take me to stores like George Fisher in Keswick and Ellis Brigham closer to home, I was always drawn to the details and fabrics of the products they sold. I was an inquisitive child and wanted to understand more about how and why they were made. I was quite good at drawing and so clothing design became a natural subject choice for my university studies.
I graduated with a degree in fashion but the idea of creating product that solves problems for consumers engaged in very specific activities was always much more interesting to me than fashion in the traditional sense. This developed through my first job as a designer with British sailing brand Henri-Lloyd which was an invaluable education in the technicalities of performance materials and the construction of functional clothing.
How did your own awareness of the need to create environmentally responsible products develop?
In 2017, I moved to Switzerland and on a cycling trip in the Alps, I rode over the Furka Pass past the Rhone Glacier and stopped to take in the scenery. I was comparing the view from the old Belvedere Hotel to photographs from 100 years ago and the reduction in the size of the glacier was staggering.
I’d heard a lot about climate change in the media but seeing the effects of global warming for myself in the country I call home was alarming and made me question what could I do? Prior to joining Icebreaker, I was fortunate to work for Timberland which has a long-standing commitment to make products responsibly and protect the outdoors.
During my time there, I supported the product creation team towards reducing the environmental impact of the collections with a particular focus on circularity. This culminated in the brand launching the Timberloop platform which combined circular design principles with a product take-back scheme.
Why did your new role at Icebreaker appeal to you?
After eight enjoyable years with Timberland, I was keen to return to a role within the technical apparel sector. As well as hiking, I enjoy running and snowboarding. I love to be outside all year round and to challenge myself physically. I’m a firm believer that moving in nature is a great way to find balance amid the hectic pace of modern life.
So, as someone who loves being active in the outdoors, this opportunity really resonated with me. I already had a strong affinity with Icebreaker as a consumer and I’m excited to join a brand which has always been authentically committed to pushing the boundaries of natural performance apparel and protecting nature.
How do you integrate sustainability considerations into the creation of commercially viable products?
It’s quite simple really, because sustainability has been central to Icebreaker products since the brand’s foundation in 1995. We’ve always believed in the power of natural materials, sourcing our primary raw material, merino wool, from farms across New Zealand.
Within this we recognise that we have a responsibility to do what we can to take care of the land, for the future of our planet and communities. We’ve made a clear commitment through the Icebreaker Growers Club, establishing ten-year partnerships with our growers and together with the New Zealand Merino Company we are supporting them towards regenerative practices through the ZQRX programme.
Icebreaker was founded on merino base layers but we have since diversified into a wider range of natural performance products. To equip consumers for a high energy activity such as trail running, we needed a material with enhanced breathability and wicking.
Our purpose (to lead the movement towards a more natural way of living by taking unnecessary plastic out of performance apparel) ensures we first look to nature for the solution and so we developed cool-lite technology, an innovative material that blends our merino with Tencel sourced from sustainable eucalyptus plantations.
We set a bold goal to be plastic free by 2023 and although we failed to meet that target, our 2022 transparency report proudly celebrated that 95% of our material library was plastic free. We continue to make further progress and only use synthetic fibres where they serve specific and necessary functional requirements (such as adding stretch to underwear and socks) and there are no viable natural alternatives available. With each new development, we’re proactively innovating towards natural or bio-based alternatives and feel confident we will be able to complete our plastic-free mission.
How do you view outdoor industry brand collaboration in tackling sustainability issues?
The industry only exists because of the human desire to connect with nature and so without question, brands need to work together to deliver positive impacts for people and the planet we share to ensure future generations can continue to enjoy outdoor adventures.
At Icebreaker, as part of VF Corporation, we have strong working relationships with the other brands in the portfolio as well as the benefits of a central supply chain. This has definitely helped us accelerate our progress in the movement towards a more natural way of living as well as inviting consumers to join us on that journey.
We have a shared commitment with Smartwool to sourcing wool in the most responsible way possible, with this common goal and in partnership with the New Zealand Merino Company, through the ZQRX programme the two brands are leading the way in VF’s move to regenerative.
At Icebreaker, we believe nature has the answers and recently collaborated with Timberland and The North Face to produce focused collections which were a great way to introduce new consumers to the benefits of merino, a natural fibre which regulates body temperature, is naturally odour-resistant and feels incredibly soft on the skin.
