It has been a rough week for shoemaker New Balance. The popular athletic shoe company has been in hot water for a high level executive's view of supporting Donald Trump. In a statement released to the New York Times, Matthew Lebretton the Vice-President of Public Affairs said, "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." Since this statement has been released, upset sneakerheads and owners of New Balance shoes have taken to social media to burn, trash, and dispose of their shoes in protest to this statement.
People are even taking to social media boycotting the sneakers. Here are a few posts from Twitter:
Discarding a pair of New Balance shoes is one way to show opposition, but at least donate these shoes to Goodwill or to someone in a third-world country who does not have adequate shoes or clothing, for Pete's sake. These shoes in people's twitpics look like they haven't been worn even once.
If you think that the boycotts are what's bad, things only get worse from there. Recently, the shoe company has received an endorsement from the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi and white supremacist news site. In an article which later proved to be a hoax, the Stormer calls New Balance the, "Official shoes of white people." A lot of unaware readers who are reading this thought this was true and now had a newly kindled hatred for New Balance. If you are going to hate on New Balance, it probably won't do you any good. Getting mad at New Balance is a huge waste of energy, time, and effort. You should not be mad at New Balance and here are the reasons why:
The entire article is taken right out of context. Yes, the article does not reflect the opinions and ideals of New Balance as a whole but the opinions ideals and beliefs of one man. ONE. Matthew Lebretton agrees with Donald Trump and his opposition to the TPP because New Balance shoes are always assembled in America and does not want the TPP to outsource labor and parts manufacturing to foreign countries. Shoes made in Asian countries have a hefty tax on the product and most countries outsource labor because labor is cost-effective, while labor here is more costly. On the other hand of the two-sided sword, taxes here for the product are a lot less and a shoe fresh off the batches in Asia are slapped with a 20% tax of the shoe's value when it is brought overseas to America's ports.
Now not all of production is here in America, parts and materials are made in Vietnam and through its opposition with the TPP they were offered a stance to "take it or leave it," according to this NPR article. The article explains that the reason why New Balance wanted to make their shoes in America is to open up a client account with the US Military. The article states that the US Military has to have their uniform and boots made in the United States. Since most shoes are not made in the United States, the Military is having a hard time finding a company to make their shoes and New Balance would be the most suitable candidate to make this happen. Without the regulations put forth by the TPP, New Balances can be all assembled within the United States within their domestic plants.
From the statement above, there is some weight behind Lebretton's tweet but it does not relate to bigotry. In an article from the Guardian, a spokesman for Lebretton was asked to explain the reasoning behind his tweet, and he simply said that the tweet was, "correct only in the context of the topic of trade, and nothing else. Cementing this view, New Balance even came out with a statement saying that they do not tolerate bigotry or hatred of any form and the official's (Matthew Lebretton) statement referred to a trade policy and not about the support for a presidential candidate.
Also, if you are still stubborn to boycott New Balance shoes because of what Lebretton says, you might as well boycott Facebook because of the support board of director, Peter Thiel, gives Donald Trump ... Just saying.
