New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. (NBAS), best known as simply New Balance, is an American footwear manufacturer based in in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. It was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Support Company. Eschewing expensive advertising campaigns, it has, nevertheless, grown to be one of the largest makers of sports footwear in the world.
 

 
New Balance has continued to maintain a manufacturing presence in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom for the European market, where they produce some of their popular models such as the 990 model, in contrast to its competitors in the same market space who do not manufacture in the USA or UK. The result of this is that New Balance shoes tend to be more expensive than those of many other manufacturers. To offset this pricing difference, New Balance claims to differentiate their products with technical features, such as a blend of gel inserts, heel counters, and a greater selection of sizes, particularly for very narrow and/or very wide widths.

Made in USA (and UK) stance
New Balance is one of several shoe companies that makes some of their products in the United States. Green America states in the New Balance Responsible Shopper company information page that around one quarter of NB's shoes are made in the United States. New Balance owns six factories in the United States: two in Massachusetts (Boston and Lawrence), three in Maine (Norridgewock, Skowhegan, and Norway), and one in California. In 1994, New Balance manufactured 70% of its shoes in the United States. In 2006, New Balance stated on its customer help site that "approximately 25% of the New Balance shoes sold in North America are Made in the USA and we will continue domestic manufacturing." According to Fortune Magazine in 2006, "about 70 percent of its shoes are now made in China and the other 5 percent in Vietnam." The New Balance production facility in the United Kingdom has been, since 1982, at Flimby, Cumbria in North West England, where 28,000 pairs of shoes are produced each week.