NEW BALANCE (F)

New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), doing business as New Balance, is one of the world’s major sports footwear and apparel manufacturers. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the multinational corporation was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Support Company.
New Balance maintains a manufacturing presence in the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom for the European market, where it produces some of its popular models. New Balance claims to differentiate its products with technical features, such as blended gel inserts, heel counters and a greater selection of sizes, particularly for very narrow or very wide widths. The company is privately held and totaled $6.5 billion in revenue in 2023.
In 1906, William J. Riley, a British immigrant, founded the New Balance Arch Support Company in the Boston area, manufacturing arch supports and other accessories designed to improve shoe fit. 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. The company later did business under the name New Balance Athletic Shoe Company. As New Balance slowly established itself as a niche business in the 1930s, baseball players and track and field athletes sought the company out for its specialty footwear.