New Balance’s “Made in USA” products have come into question again under a new lawsuit, as initially reported by The Fashion Law.
Filed in a federal court in Massachusetts, plaintiffs Matthew Cristostomo, Anthony Bollini, Spencer Verrilla, Derrick Evans, Clifton Bradley, and Robert Kaminsky allege that the Boston-based brand is misleading consumers in representing that its footwear is “U.S.A. Made” though the sneakers don’t meet the federal standard, and “continu[ing] to knowingly make these misrepresentations because consumers are willing to pay more for products that they believe are actually made in the United States.”
As alluded to earlier, this isn’t the first time the brand’s “Made in USA” products have been brought up.
The outer soles, for instance, are imported from China, apparently clashing with what the U.S. government says can be labeled “Made in USA.” The Federal Trade Commission states that a product has to be “all or virtually all” made in the U.S. to qualify. And in the 1990s, the FTC brought an enforcement action against New Balance over its claim. — The Wall Street Journal (2014)
However, not much legal action came from it.
New Balance recently issued a statement to The Fashion Law regarding the lawsuit and its products claiming that company “takes pride in our longstanding commitment to domestic manufacturing – it is a valued part of our heritage and culture,” while adding that its “four New England-based factories currently employ approximately 1,000 Americans who work to produce our athletic footwear.”
Additionally, the rep told The Fashion Law that “New Balance seeks to be transparent in all consumer communications, prominently disclosing that where domestic value is at least 70 percent, the brand’s footwear is labeled Made in the USA.”
According to The Fashion Law, Cristostomo and the other plaintiffs allege that New Balance is dismissing the FTC’s “Made in USA” rules after the agency initiated an administrative action against them in 1996 for making deceptive “Made in the USA” claims about its footwear, thus entering into a class action settlement over its “Made in the USA” claims for consumers who purchased New Balance footwear between January 2012 and January 2019.
The lawsuit surfaced shortly after New Balance was criticized when Truth in Advertising, Inc. intiated a complaint with the FTC, accusing New Balance of running “afoul” of the regulator’s Made in USA Labeling Rule and harming consumers, as well as “honest American companies trying to compete with one of the world’s largest manufacturers of athletic shoes,” in the process. According to the ad watchdog’s September complaint, “For far too long New Balance has brazenly violated Made in USA origin laws,” which prohibit the labeling of a product as Made in the U.S. “unless the final assembly or processing of the product occurs in the U.S., all significant processing that goes into the product occurs in the U.S., and all or virtually all ingredients or components of the product are made and sourced in the U.S.”
Stay tuned to SoleSavy as we continue to follow any developments with the lawsuit as well as other industry news.
