Icebreaker Reviews

3.7

63% would recommend to a friend

(171 total reviews)
avatar

Greg Smith

70% approve of CEO

43% positive business outlook

Icebreaker has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 171 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Icebreaker employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

171 reviews
1.0
3 June 2017

A Victim of its own self-absorption

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good clothes for a good discount Good product (which is also a detriment, as you'll see below).

Cons

Way too much emphasis on Individual sales' statistics and not enough of the heart and passion that founded and built the company. They also don't listen to what I believed were very valid employee concerns from others and myself and has this unwarranted 'God-Complex' about its product. Icebreaker treat staff not as humans but as sales assets. I understand that the goal of a business is to make money, but the amount of abuse and disrespect certain staff were receiving in my store was just unnecessary and cruel. Likewise, they blame their lack of profits on lack of staff competency, which really degrades individual and team morale. However, where I worked everybody was competent, but management would still always blame staff for any low-profit day. Instead, the major reason for relatively low-profits is that Icebreaker doesn't realise that it needs to advertise and appeal to the general public much more than it currently does. As I said, it has this 'God-Complex' about it, in which it believes it's super unique, special and niche. This is to the point where it doesn't advertise via traditional means. This is a way of asserting how 'different' and 'unique' it is. Likewise, its desire to be niche makes the products way too expensive for the majority of people. It has this false belief that all customers can be turned into buyers, but ignores the reality of most people not having enough money to buy its products. Thus, its only real target audience are those who know about the brand and those who can afford it. In other words, a significantly small number of people when compared to the volume of customers the adjacent Kathmandu and Mountain Designs were receiving.

1.0
4 Apr 2019

Icebreaker Sales Associate

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-the team I worked with in store was incredible -its an amazing product

Cons

-backward company that doesn’t understand how to market -head office is a big boys club -clothes are poorly designed and slim fitting

1.0
4 June 2019

False Promises and Deception

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Team created at time of working at store, Great staff Discount

Cons

Where to begin... 3 years of working as a role i wasn't ever promoted on until last minute for management convenience and even after announcing resignation came back with an offer that would only benefit them. Current Area Manager throws retail staff under the bus claiming to action things that never went through from them. Never takes responsibility. Despite being brought out, Head Office is a sham. No structure, lack of communication from Head Office to retail teams. Nit pickers. Never show acknowledgement when blood has been put on the line from retail team.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 171 Reviews

Glassdoor has 184 Icebreaker reviews submitted anonymously by Icebreaker employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Icebreaker is right for you.