New Balance
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Formerly called
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New Balance Arch Support Company |
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| Private | |
| Industry | Footwear |
| Founded | 1906 |
| Founder | William J. Riley |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
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Key people
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Jim Davis (Chairman) Robert T. DeMartini (CEO) |
| Products | Athletic shoes, shoes, apparel, Cricket bats, sportswear, sports equipment |
| Revenue | US$3.7 billion (2015) |
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Number of employees
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5,000 worldwide (2015) |
| Website | newbalance |
New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), best known as simply New Balance, is an American multinational corporation based in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1906 as the "New Balance Arch Support Company" and is one of the world's major sports footwear manufacturers.
New Balance maintains a manufacturing presence in the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom—for the European market, where they produce some of their popular models such as the 990 model—in contrast to its competitors, who manufacture outside of the USA and UK. As a result, New Balance shoes tend to be more expensive than those of many other manufacturers. To offset this pricing difference, New Balance claims to differentiate their products with technical features, such as blended gel inserts, heel counters and a greater selection of sizes, particularly for very narrow and/or very wide widths. The company has reached a total profit of approximately $40 billion since 1991.
In 1906, William J. Riley, British emigrant, founded the New Balance Arch Support Company, manufacturing arch supports and other accessories designed to improve shoe fit in the Boston area. His first product, a flexible arch support, was designed with three support points to provide greater balance and comfort in the shoe. It is believed that Riley came up with the name "New Balance" by observing chickens in his yard and demonstrated the way his arch supports worked by keeping a chicken foot on his office desk. He explained to customers that the chicken's three-pronged foot resulted in perfect balance. In 1927, Riley hired Arthur Hall to be a salesman. In 1934, Hall became a business partner and found his niche by marketing to people whose jobs required them to spend a lot of time standing. In 1956, Hall sold the business to his daughter Eleanor and her husband Paul Kidd.
Eleanor and Paul Kidd continued to sell mainly arch supports until 1960, when they designed and manufactured the "Trackster", the world's first running shoe made with a ripple sole. It was also the first running shoe to come in varying widths. The "Trackster" was given a big boost through the YMCA programs in which it became the unofficial shoe. College track teams such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tufts University and Boston University adopted the New Balance Trackster for their cross-country teams, soon to be followed by other colleges and private high schools around the country.
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