The story of Steve Jobs' favorite sneaker brand: New Balance

Most people know New Balance as one of the best sneaker companies of all time, but in the early days of its founding, the brand made its name not as New Balance Sneakers, but as New Balance Insoles. In its early days, New Balance was selling soles, not sneakers.

The founder of the company is William J. Riley, who immigrated to America from England in 1906. The company “New Balance” got its name from the process by which company founder William Riley observed chickens in his backyard and tried to understand how a three-toed foot could best support a body.

That's exactly why the company produced three-prong base supports based on this observation by Riley. Because for Riley, that's exactly what the "new balance" was. In 1927, New Balance was selling insoles for exactly $5. This figure was equivalent to the price of a new pair of shoes at that time.

Price has never been an issue for New Balance. This fact has not changed since the day it was founded. This approach did not mean that the brand wanted to extort more money from customers. New Balance wanted to create the best quality product it could sell at the highest price, not only because it would generate brand revenue, but also because it aimed to help its customer by offering a superior quality product.

Insoles, New Balance's first product, were sold by marketers, not retail stores.

1927

Riley hires a man named Arthur Hall to be a salesman for the New Balance Arch Support Company. As New Balance products are not yet sold in retail stores, Hall becomes a traveling salesman; This personalized approach helps the brand stand out over competitors.

1936

Hall becomes a partner in the company and focuses selling arch support products to people who spend a lot of the day standing up such as retail workers, firefighters and police officers.

1938

New Balance create their first ever running shoe for a local running club known as the Boston Brown Bag Harriers. Designed by Riley, these specialist running shoes feature a crepe sole and are made from kangaroo leather.

In 1941, New Balance began producing sneakers for baseball, tennis, and boxing as well.

In 1956, the New Balance company name was changed to "New Balance Orthopedic Laboratory" to highlight America's admiration for science.

1956

Arthur Hall 's daughter Eleanor and her husband Paul Kidd buy the company. At first the Kidds keep the main focus of the company on selling orthopedic footwear products, but soon gain an interest in developing sports footwear to meet the specific requirements of athletes.

Standing behind its product all the way, New Balance refused to sponsor track and field teams because it wanted people to use it because they really trusted its quality. New Balance later adopted the slogan “Endorsed By No One” and followed the mantra for a long time.

Famous for producing wide-soled shoes, New Balance brand launched its first wide-soled sports shoes, the Trackster, in 1960.

"Show me a runner whose shoes don't fit properly, and I'll tell you who loses," said New Balance founder Jim Davis in an ad campaign for the company.

New owner

Jim Davis bought a small Boston shoemaker in 1972 and turned it into $3.6 billion (est. sales) New Balance. Davis is the chairman of New Balance, and his wife Anna, who joined the company in 1977, is the vice chairman. He and his family own an estimated 95% of the company, which is private.

1976

The 320 launches and is the first shoe to feature the now famous 'N' logo. New Balance shoes start to use unique model numbers rather than names for their products so that customers see each model as being equal, but designed for different purposes. The number defines the type of shoe, the activity it was designed for and whether the shoe was built for stability, speed and so on. Sales of the New Balance 320 skyrocket as the shoe is voted as the number one running shoe on the market by Runner's World magazine.

In 1978, the first apparel products were launched under the New Balance brand name: Gore-Tex running gear, nylon and mesh T-shirts and shorts.

Steve Jobs loved New Balance sneakers, in fact, it was the only shoe he wore. The New Balance 992 was a favorite of Apple company founder Steve Jobs.