When asked to provide a company that makes high quality apparel and shoes, New Balance is not usually the first mentioned. Founded in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 1900s as an arch support company.. New Balance has been providing quality shoes for athletes at all levels since the 1970s.Although New Balance is not entirely popular in here in Washington, they are in the Northeast. They are worn by participants in large competitions, such as the Boston and New York Marathons. In fact, on the Boston Marathon website, there is a picture of a gentleman in wheelchair with New Balance hat.
In the past few years, New Balance has made a good number of sales with shoes like the ones above. They appear to be a retro design, but have a modern color scheme, which has made this style popular. Many students in high school and college have flocked to shoes like this design as a fashion statement. Not only have they been a good seller due to the design, but students are buying more than one pair. They buy a few different color schemes to go with several outfits.
New Balance is now launching a new ad campaign to promote its latest running shoe to come out: the NB 890. It is toted as the "lightest training shoe" out on the market. With that, New Balance has a host of elite runners in a commercial to show that the company is serious. A few of these athletes are quite prominite, including USA steeple chase record holder Jenny (Barringer) Simpson, and England's Andy Baddeley, who one the New York 5th Avenue mile race last summer.
Look out for the quiet company, they are making some noise.
Interesting post. I have 2 questions: First, the ad seems to be targeted towards more professional runners who run in competitions. What about other segments like fitness runners, do you think they are targeted as well? Second, you mentioned that college students perceive this as a fashion brand. Do you think student athletes in track will choose New Balance? Do they perceive this as a professional running brand or more as fashion?
ReplyDeleteIt is targeted to runners in general. New Balance used the professional runners to display excellence. Fitness runners want be excellent too. And yes, college students see their casual shoes as fashionable. Those shoes are different from the running shoes
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