The New Balance Sneakers You Can Feel Good About Buying Right Now

Last November, Boston-based new balance 420 womens sneaker brand New Balance got itself in serious hot water when one of its VPs, Matthew LeBretton, said that he felt a Trump presidency would mean good things for the company—specifically in regards to the how the death of the Trans Pacific Partnership would align with its own "Made-in-America" ethos.
LeBretton's comments ignited a firestorm of controversy considering New Balance had an ongoing beef with the Obama administration regarding a contract to make sneakers for the military. (One that was hopefully squashed after Obama signed a bill in December guaranteeing the military buys made-in-America sneakers for new recruits.

All of new balance 420 mens, including what many felt was a disingenuous, weak response to the controversy from the brand (especially when it came to the brand being endorsed by literal neo-Nazis), seemed only to exacerbate the idea that New Balance supported Trump. As we later learned with L.L. Bean, these days any association to the president can be seen as an implicit endorsement of all the racist, sexist, and xenophobic baggage that comes with him.

We get that outrage. (We felt it, too!) But the merits of globalism and the T.P.P. could be argued all day (which is why politicians and economists often do argue about them all the damn time). All we're saying is there are other considerations that should come in to play when judging a brand like New Balance. For example, when it comes to manufacturing well-made sneakers, new balance 373 womens shows a commitment to decent wages for workers in ways few other labels of its size do.

But at $205 retail, these made-in-England 991s are more expensive than your average new balance 996 suede sneaker. And although New Balance, which is headquartered in New England and operates five factories in the U.S., makes a considerable portion of it shoes in Asia, their commitment to employing factory workers who make decent wages shows that at least some of the time it is willing to sacrifice profits in favor of its employees. This is a practice worth supporting.

Buying new balance 996v2 less but buying better might seem like a small issue during a time when our President is denying climate change, turning a blind eye to corporate greed, and stealing Bernie Sanders' made-in-U.S.A.-favoring policies to fuel his own terrifying neo-Fascist tendencies. But voting with your dollars is actually one of the best and easiest ways you can make a difference right now.