Linda Tanouye as VP of Development & Sourcing at Icebreaker

13 Jul '11

3 min read

Linda Tanouye has joined Icebreaker, the New Zealand company that pioneered the outdoor merino wool apparel category, as Vice President of Development and Sourcing. Based out of Icebreaker's US headquarters in Portland, Oregon, USA, Tanouye will be responsible for leading the company's development team and for sourcing new manufacturing capabilities.

“As Icebreaker continues to expand, Linda Tanouye will be instrumental in developing the new manufacturing capabilities needed to support the company's growth and future product strategy,” said Icebreaker Founder and CEO Jeremy Moon. “She brings to Icebreaker an incredible depth of experience and has a passion for working with companies in their early years, when setting up and optimizing product development, sourcing, and production is most crucial.”

Tanouye has 20 years of experience in development and sourcing for outdoor apparel companies, including TaylorMade-adidas Golf, where she was Senior Director of Global Apparel Development for 11 years. She was recruited in 2000 to work for TaylorMade as the Director of Apparel Product Development. At the time, adidas has just purchased Salomon, which in turn, owned TaylorMade. adidas wanted to start a golf apparel division based in the Carlsbad Taylor Made Golf headquarters. Tanouye helped forge the apparel line, creating product from scratch and building the sourcing base and infrastructure to support it, and building it into a $250MM category of leading global golf performance products.

Prior to joining TaylorMade-adidas Golf, Tanouye was Director of Apparel Development, Production and Sourcing for Vans, Inc., where she developed and delivered the first Vans apparel range, enabling the brand to expand from their skate shoe roots and increase market presence. Her first apparel job was with NIKE, Inc. when the company was still in its early breakout and growth phase. As Product Line Manager, Tanouye managed the design and development of the Men's Basics category, which represented 40 percent of the NIKE apparel line.

“Icebreaker is a fantastic brand with enormous growth potential, and I am excited to be joining the team and helping bring it to the next level globally through innovations using merino wool,” said Tanouye.

Launched in 1994, Icebreaker was the first company in the world to develop a merino fibre layering system for the outdoors. It was also the first outdoor apparel company in the world to source merino directly from growers, a system it began in 1997. The Icebreaker apparel system includes underwear, mid layer garments, outerwear, socks and accessories. There are outdoor, technical and lifestyle categories, each with its own specific fabrics and design details. Icebreaker is sold in more than 3,000 stores in 37 countries.

Based in Wellington, New Zealand, Icebreaker uses only pure merino handpicked from 140 high country stations in the country's Southern Alps to create adventure clothing for women, men and kids that combines nature's work with human technology and design.

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