@SoleCollector @newbalance good to know. I made a little bonfire tonight :) pic.twitter.com/yOdCTbQgac
— skreetware (@milftears) November 10, 2016
Sad day @SoleCollector @NewBalance pic.twitter.com/g3ZSc6ot9a
— YouTube/ndofitness (@stretchd) November 10, 2016
WASHINGTON — New Balance has thrown its support behind one of President-elect Donald Trump’s trade policies, and that has some shoe customers viewing the move as support for Trump, so they’ve been burning or dumping their sneakers.
New Balance — an opponent of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that includes lifting tariffs imposed on shoes imported from Vietnam — told The Wall Street Journal it welcomed Trump’s election. Trump opposes free trade agreements and has said he wanted to drop consideration of the TPP.
“The Obama administration turned a deaf ear to us and frankly, with President-elect Trump, we feel things are going to move in the right direction,” Matthew LeBretton, New Balance’s vice president of public affairs, told The Wall Street Journal.
The Boston-based company that makes a quarter of its shoes in the U.S. later clarified its position to CBS News.
“As the only major company that still makes athletic shoes in the United States, New Balance has a unique perspective on trade in that we want to make more shoes in the United States, not less,” a spokesman for New Balance told CBS News.
“New Balance publicly supported the trade positions of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump prior to election day that focused on American manufacturing job creation and we continue to support them today. We believe in community.”
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