New Balance
Worth it?
Yes, though only if you're buying from the Made in USA line specifically. The 990v6, 993, and 997H are assembled by real workers in New England, built to a standard that genuinely outlasts most of what's on the market, and priced at $185–$210 to reflect real domestic labor costs. Just go in knowing "Made in USA" here means roughly 70% domestic value, not 100%, and make sure you're actually buying from the domestic line, because most of New Balance's catalog isn't.
For brands that manufacture both domestically and overseas, our grading focuses only on the domestically manufactured goods. If made in USA is what you are looking for, brands that don't say "all" in the database require you to check the description.
Commitment
New Balance employs approximately 1,200 workers across factories in Massachusetts, Maine, and a new facility in Londonderry, New Hampshire that opened in 2025. That is a real, ongoing investment in domestic production, not a token showcase. But the commitment has limits worth naming: the Made in USA line represents a small fraction of New Balance's total catalog, with the majority of their volume manufactured in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Even within the domestic line, New Balance uses a 70% domestic value threshold rather than sourcing everything in the US, outer soles and some other components come from Asia. If you want to support their American manufacturing, you have to seek out the specific Made in USA models; buying any New Balance shoe won't do it.
Character
New Balance started in 1906 as an arch support company. The name itself comes from founder William J. Riley's observation that a chicken's three-clawed foot distributes weight with near-perfect equilibrium. That obsession with fit never really left. Jim Davis bought the company in 1972 for $100,000, famously running his first Boston Marathon the morning he signed the papers, and he and his wife Anne have owned it privately ever since. What makes New Balance unusual isn't just that they kept manufacturing in the US when every competitor offshored; it's that they built out and expanded that capacity through 2025, treating domestic production as a genuine business strategy rather than a marketing footnote. The 990, in continuous production since 1982, is the clearest expression of that character: slow, deliberate, offered in multiple widths, and engineered to last.
Ethics
The core issue is the gap between New Balance's "Made in USA" marketing and what the FTC actually requires. New Balance labels shoes as Made in USA when they meet a 70% domestic value threshold, a standard the company discloses, but typically in small print that's easy to miss. The FTC's own standard for an unqualified origin claim is stricter: "all or virtually all" of the product must be domestic. In September 2021, consumer watchdog TINA.org filed a formal complaint with the FTC urging investigation and fines; at least one class-action lawsuit has also been filed on similar grounds. New Balance has historically defended its labeling approach, and as of this writing the company has not publicly changed it. Their domestic factories operate under U.S. labor law, which provides meaningful protections; their overseas supply chain, where most of the volume is, is governed by an internal supplier code of conduct with limited public disclosure. We've reached out to New Balance for comment and will update this section when we hear back.
Heritage
New Balance is 120 years old, still privately held, and still answering to no shareholders, a rare combination at $9 billion in annual revenue. Domestic manufacturing began in earnest in 1978 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, expanding into Maine communities like Skowhegan in the early 1980s, where workers displaced from shuttered textile mills found steady work. The 990 has been in production since 1982, now in its sixth version. New Balance is the only major athletic footwear brand still cutting and stitching in the United States at meaningful scale, and in 2025 they deepened that commitment with a $65 million expansion of the Skowhegan plant and the opening of a new factory in New Hampshire, rather than pulling back.
Value
The Made in USA line runs $185–$210 at retail: the 990v6 and 993 sit at the top of that range, the 997H and 992 slightly below. For context, a Nike or Adidas performance shoe in that price range is assembled overseas; you're paying for brand and technology, not labor geography. With New Balance's domestic line, the premium reflects real American wages and a slower manufacturing process, and the shoes tend to wear proportionally longer. If the full retail price is a stretch, Joe's New Balance Outlet (the brand's own clearance channel) regularly carries Made in USA models discounted to the $130–$160 range, particularly in end-of-season colorways. The 993 is the strongest everyday value in the lineup; the 990v6 is worth full price if you run in it.