Almost a year after New Balance customers filed a complaint in a U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against New Balance, claiming its “Made in USA” branding on certain products were deceptive, a judge has denied the footwear maker’s motion to dismiss the claim.
In the original suit, filed in December 2021, plaintiffs alleged that New Balance products bearing this tagline are not entirely made in the USA, which makes the marketing misleading. The complaint, which includes over 100 members, is seeking $5 million in damages.
In the recent update to the complaint, the judge ruled that “plaintiffs have sufficiently plead that New Balance sold shoes in its ‘made’ series without adequately disclosing the foreign content of its shoes,” noting several examples of ways that a consumer might be misled to think some products were fully made in the USA.
FN has reached out to New Balance for a comment.
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says that any product that bears words “Made in USA” must be made “all or virtually all” in the U.S. The suit alleges that this is not the case with New Balance.
“New Balance sells several models of footwear that prominently claim to be ‘Made in USA,'” read the initial complaint. “However, the sneakers have as much as 30% of their components made outside of the United States—including the sole of the sneakers, which is an important aspect of the shoes.”
According to the complaints, the plaintiffs would not have purchased the sneakers if they knew that the shoes were not entirely made in the U.S. Additionally, the plaintiffs argue that they were deceived into paying a price premium for products they believed to be entirely made in the U.S.
“New Balance takes pride in our longstanding commitment to domestic manufacturing — it is a valued part of our heritage and culture,” New Balance told FN in a statement in December 2021. “Our four New England-based factories currently employ approximately 1,000 Americans who work to produce our athletic footwear. Our brand’s success has been built and sustained by our unwavering belief that making things matters and by the craftsmanship of the men and women who work in our factories.”
The complaint noted that in 1996, the FTC notified New Balance about its deceptive claim of its shoes being “Made in USA” and also highlighted another class action settlement in 2019 over the same issue.
New Balance does include a small print disclaimer on its website and its packaging that says the shoes “contain a domestic value of 70% or greater.” But according to the complaint, “No reasonable consumer would expect that small print language on the underside of a packaging or hid in assorted places on a website contain language inconsistent with the representations that the sneakers were ‘Made in the USA.'”
In a statement in December 2021, New Balance said it aims to to be “transparent in all consumer communications, prominently disclosing that where domestic value is at least 70%, the brand’s footwear is labeled Made in the USA.”
