COMPANY FOCUSCompany:New BalanceFounded:Boston, Massachusetts, 1906Available From:jdsports.co.uk The Boston based sportswear brand, New Balance, today unveiled their plans to reach $10 billion in global sales over the next few years. With all this talk of re-inventing themselves from “dad shoes” & other copycatted copy across various sources on the web, 10 years ago New Balance weren’t considered boring or not on trend.The thing is 10 years ago here in the UK, New Balance were actually really popular, but this all came slightly before the hyped up resale stuff came about with adidas YEEZY which completely changed the sneaker world overnight. New Balance were the trainer brand to have back in 2014 with some pretty cool collabs and the revival of classic silhouettes like the 1500 and the 574, they just weren’t at the globally recognised level there at today. In the last 10 years the sneaker industry has grown globally to around $80 billion and expected to reach $100 billion in the next few years. New Balance now plan to reach £10 billion in global sales over the next few years also. The question is how will they do it? Above: Working with Teddy Santis has massively boosted the NB brand since he joined as creative director. It doesn’t take a genius to see that sneakers are now just everyday shoes, a trend which you could argue actually started in the 1980s with the whole fitness boom & steroid fuelled action heroes. The seismic shift in sneaker technology saw New Balance become a household name for “would-be” runners with some wearers opting to wear them also for every-day wear. The revival of New Balance in the early twenty-tens saw the Boston born brand back with a bang reviving archive models to a new found retro runner fanbase. The NB trend was more recently revived courtesy of Aimé Leon Dore & Teddy Santis with Santis taking a more permanent role as creative director. Mixed together with the growing sneaker market, tight distribution & the “wearing sneakers to work” trend has created the perfect breeding ground for NB to flourish. Sought after releases combined with their “no fuss” classics has allowed NB to become a dominant force they are today. Above: New Balance previously sponsored Liverpool FC from 2015-2020. The thing is NB could probably just keep doing what they’re doing to hit $10 billion in global sales. You know for a fact they aren’t going to do that though. They’ll have a highly trained team of exec’s, directors, marketing gurus & analytics maestros going hard on the current numbers & projections. What is known at this stage is they are looking to expand further into basketball, tennis & football. Not that they haven’t already dabbled in these sports as the die hard sneaker fans will know the 550 is an OG 80s basketball trainer & NB did previously sponsor the likes of Liverpool FC. It’s probably more of a case of becoming more dominant in these sports with clever marketing campaigns and elite athlete endorsements. To unlock further growth New Balance could also open more flagship stores across the globe but these always come with further risk with the current state of bricks and mortar retail. Will New Balance hit $10 billion in global sales over the next few years? More than likely.See alsoNews·October 22, 2024Don’t Look Back in Trango: Liam Gallagher For Berghaus You can also check out all the latest New Balance roles at at Sneaker Jobs now.