New Balance Hits $9.2bn in Sales, Up 19%, on Domestic Manufacturing Bet

New Balance reported $9.2 billion in global sales for fiscal 2025, up 19 percent from 2024. The figure, released in February, marks the brand's fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth and worldwide market share gains.

President and CEO Joe Preston laid out the strategy behind the numbers at WWD's Apparel and Retail CEO Summit last week, in conversation with Michael Atmore, WWD editor in chief and Fairchild Media chief brand officer. Preston anchored the discussion in a mantra the company adopted in 2019: control what you can.

"When we made some changes within their organization in 2019 … it was all about trying to keep pace with the consumer and focusing on the things that we could control," Preston said. "I can't control the price of gas, but I can control how we're executing at retail or with our wholesale partners."

Why does private ownership matter to the supply chain?

Preston tied New Balance's sourcing posture directly to its corporate structure. The company opened its own factories in Massachusetts and Maine in the late 1970s. Both remain operational today.

"We're the only athletic footwear company to have manufacturing here in the U.S. as well as in the U.K.," he said. The plants embed the company in local communities, he added, through hiring and nonprofit work. "If we were a public company, who knows if we would have these facilities?"

That domestic investment continued through 2025:

• Expanded Central Maine Made factory opened in Skowhegan last fall.
• Pilot production began at a new advanced manufacturing facility in Londonderry, N.H.
• A new distribution center opened in Salt Lake City last year.

At its Boston-area headquarters, the company operates three innovation centers within roughly an eighth of a mile: a retail innovation center, a manufacturing innovation center and a product innovation center housed inside a track facility built in 2022. "Those three elements, we think, will set the teams up to deliver upon our ambitions for the next decade plus," Preston said.

How did the regions perform?

New Balance called fiscal 2025 results "record-setting" in nearly every region. North America grew more than 20 percent year-over-year. Europe grew more than 30 percent.

The company remains private but discloses performance once a year at the start of each financial period.

What does the CEO see in the consumer?

Preston acknowledged pressure on demand. "The consumer has been under pressure," he said. "We're constantly hearing about rising costs, whether it's interest rates or gas prices. So, I think that cumulative effect has been building. There's no question."

Still, he described the athletic category as "hanging in there." Holiday trading will be competitive, he predicted, but consumers continue to spend around key retail moments.

"Time and time again, though, the consumer has come out for the big moments," Preston said. "Traffic patterns this year have been challenging, and at some points it seems like the consumer is just going home and hiding. But they have been coming out for the big moments, whether it be back-to-school or Easter earlier this year."

On competition, Preston said the company tracks retail partners and rivals closely. "If you are ahead of it, if you are on top of it with the consumer, then you can create product and experiences that keeps you competitive," he said. "It's a market share game to try and grow responsibly."

Looking further out, Preston struck a cautiously optimistic note on 2027, contingent on stability returning to the broader economy. "If we can get some stability, I do believe that by spring, we could be in a much different place," he said. "We could be in a much stronger environment."