A New Zealand sports clothing brand is keeping to its "core theme" while at the same time tailoring its products to the Asian market.
Icebreaker, which operates in the outdoor sportswear market, has two stores in New York, supplies 3000 sports shops and has offices in eight countries.
Chief Executive Jeremy Moon told TV ONE's Breakfast that Europe is the biggest market for Icebreaker, but moving into Asia has been the latest push for the company.
The first step was to sign two distributors in Taiwan and Japan, and tailoring the products to the Asian market, he said.
Despite the changes made to satisfy Asian consumers, Icebreaker's head of sales Simon Leitch said the core theme is still the same.
"We believe merino has got great properties around warmth, comfort, breathability and of course it doesn't smell like some synthetics do," he said.
He said one thing that changes regionally is colour palette.
"New Zealanders do like quite a dark palette, and we like prints on our t-shirts," he said.
"In Asia, there's a bit of a sizing challenge there, but somewhere like Japan, they tend to blur the boundaries between technical garments and fashion garments. So you can get a fashion garment that has a lot of technical features to it."
Moon said the company aims to keep the products fresh and bringing new New Zealand innovations to people across the world who are hungry for new ideas.
On the cusp of innovation
Moon said wanted to create a natural alternative to synthetic sports clothing.
"Because everything on the sports clothing market was polyester or polypropelene", he said.
In a matter of weeks, Moon said Icebreaker will be releasing a new range of clothing which is water resistant.
"We've got a new innovation around nanotechnology, adding water repellency to jackets and outerwear," he said.