Popular shoe brand New Balance have been subject to a media storm in the past couple of weeks- or should I say wildfire- as consumers have been burning their products after the brand seemingly endorsed President-Elect Donald Trump. Following the election, Matthew LeBretton told the Wall Street Journal that “The Obama administration turned a deaf ear to us and frankly, with president-elect Trump, we feel things are going to move in the right direction.” Talk about starting off on the wrong foot. With New Balance’s primary consumers being angry anti-Trump millennials, any inclination towards Trump was bound to cause outrage amongst the vanguards of social media. Hundreds and thousands of furious shoe lovers everywhere have attempted to boycott the brand, throwing away and burning the New Balance trainers they already own and reaching out on Twitter to warn others against supporting the brand.
However, the label have since stated that their stance on the President-Elect’s trumping of the election was in no way political, but policy related in terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. New Balance has always opposed the TPP, a free-trade deal that would reduce tariffs on imported goods to the US from certain countries, as they manufacture the majority of their shoes in the US. Despite some of their products being made in countries that are affected by TPP (such as Asia), New Balance pride themselves on their factories in New England where the brand has held a presence for over 100 years. Rivals, such as Nike and Reebok, are import manufacturers and consequently, avid supporters of the TPP, with Nike even hosting President Obama back in 2015 to promote the TPP.
(Photo Credit: www.newbalance.com)
Refuting claims that New Balance are the “official shoes of white people”, as quoted by the Daily Stormer (a site full of white supremacist ideals and anti-Semetic and anti-homosexual preaching), the brand reached out to their target market by issuing an official statement on Facebook and Twitter to say that LeBretton’s quote had been “taken out of context”: “As a 110-year-old company with five factories in the U.S. and thousands of employees worldwide from all races, genders, cultures and sexual orientations, New Balance is a values-driven organization and culture that believes in humanity, integrity, community and mutual respect for people around the world.”
(Photo Credit: www.twitter.com)
In all fairness, it does seem like some have gone too far in blacklisting New Balance from their wardrobe because of the comment. Is the brand really a true supporter of everything Trump embodies? Probably not. But seriously, how foolish can you be to run against the collective thoughts of your demographic? The answer is very. All that can be done now to rebalance the brand is to employ some serious damage control and a fantastic PR team with hope that the comment will be forgotten. New Balance better act fast, especially as Reebok are offering a pair of free trainers for those who boycott the brand!