Customers alleged New Balance marketed shoes as Made in the USA despite some overseas components; the company said it labels footwear that has at least 70% domestic value and is expanding U.S. production. In May 2024, five named plaintiffs agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice; the evidence does not disclose settlement terms.
Sources
https://www.fastcompany.com/90710358/new-balance-lawsuit-shows-how-flimsy-the-made-in-usa-label-actually-is
For decades, New Balance has branded itself an American-made footwear company. On its shoe boxes, it proudly asserts that it has been “made in the U.S. for over 75 years.” But over the last three decades, it has repeatedly come under fire for misrepresenting its products. A Wall Street Journal investigation from 2014 revealed that only about 70% of New Balance shoes reflected domestic content and labor. And in the 1990s, the FTC brought an enforcement action against New Balance for making these claims about domestic manufacturing, but eventually dropped it after a contentious legal battle.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/new-balance-shoe-customers-end-suit-over-made-in-usa-claims
New Balance Athletics Inc. and a group of customers, who alleged the company deceptively marketed certain shoe models as “Made in the USA” when up to 30% of their components are produced outside of the US, have agreed to settle their suit.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90710358/new-balance-lawsuit-shows-how-flimsy-the-made-in-usa-label-actually-is
of materials made overseas. This is a problem, the plaintiffs say, because consumers are willing to pay more for products they believe are made in the U.S. This is backed up by 2019 research from the Alliance for American Manufacturing and the FTC, which found that consumers, when given a choice, overwhelmingly prefer domestically made products to those that are imported. And 60% of consumers are willing to pay up to 10% more for an American-made product. "There is a tangible value associated with the 'Made in the USA' label," says Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. "Making sure the label is safeguarded, protected, and well-enforced is very important." When we reached out to the company about this lawsuit, a representative emailed a statement saying: "New Balance seeks to be transparent in all consumer communications, prominently disclosing that where domestic value is at least 70%, the brand's footwear is labeled Made in the USA. New Balance sources its shoe components and materials in the United States whenever there are viable options available and is proactively working to innovate and build its domestic supplier network." She also pointed out that the company has four factories in New England where it hires around a thousand American workers to make its shoes, and is in the process of opening a fifth factory to expand its domestic production. The fact remains, however, that New Balance's internal definition of what it means to be American-made goes against the legal definition established by the FTC. (While the FTC isn't directly involved with this case, it has the potential to bring New Balance back on the FTC's radar.) Paul says that the FTC has become increasingly more aggressive in policing brands that claim to make products domestically. In 2016, the FTC forced the Detroit-based watch and bicycle brand Shinola to drop its slogan "Where American is Made" after it found that the company relies heavily on overseas parts to manufacture its products. In 2018, the FTC went after Williams-Sonoma—the parent company
https://www.fastcompany.com/90710358/new-balance-lawsuit-shows-how-flimsy-the-made-in-usa-label-actually-is
That’s the crux of a new class action lawsuit against New Balance. The case, filed by five consumers, argues that the sneaker brand misleads customers by marketing many of its shoes as locally manufactured when, in fact, as much as 30% of the content of these shoes are actually produced overseas using foreign labor. Beyond misleading customers, this goes against the regulations established by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that companies can only label their products as “Made in USA” if they contain “no—or negligible—foreign content.”