New Balance's Latest Play For Made-In-America Market

Maine-based New Balance, the only major U.S. athletic footwear company that manufactures a sizeable portion of its products on American soil, is actively playing up its "Made in the USA" distinction to expand marketshare over its "Made Everywhere But America" competitors.

In recent advertisements, the shoe manufacturer appears to have shifted to some extent its marketing strategy away from appealing to athletes to catering to Americans interested in keeping jobs here, according to a recent Boston Business Journal story.

The company, which produces 25 percent of its products stateside, also recently uploaded a series of offbeat and entertaining videos showing various one-sided competitions between their U.S. employees and those of their competitors, all of which have shipped much, if not all, of their manufacturing to overseas sweatshops, where the likelihood of workplace disasters is much higher than in the United States.