Diving Into Fashion

New Balance’s Lifestyle Collection Steps Up with Textiles that Deliver Style and Substance

New Balance may be known for its quality running shoes, but in recent years the brand has increasingly shown that it has also got a handle on style. In its newest lifestyle footwear offerings, New Balance has teamed with design firm DDC USA to help it reach a trendy crowd with innovative and fashionable looks.

New Balance, which began as an arch support company in the early 1900s before evolving into a shoe manufacturer in the 1970s, today has a family of brands that includes not only New Balance, but also Dunham, PF Flyers and Aravon. New Balance also owns the lacrosse brand Warrior and the soccer, field hockey and lacrosse brand Brine. Because of New Balance’s reputation for quality and substance in its performance brands, the design team says that the New Balance

Lifestyle footwear shares a similar focus on innovation and the use of technical materials.

“I think from New Balance’s standpoint it is important that they deliver innovation to the end consumer and it is important to me as a designer, as well,” says New Balance Lifestyle’s creative director, Savania Davies-Keiller, who owns and operates DDC USA in New York City and Los Angeles. “New Balance is an athletic company, so it is important that we look at the most innovative materials out there. It is important to the end consumer who is looking for various things, whether it is a technology that enhances their life or a technology that makes their life easy. In some cases it is just something new and fresh and exciting that piques their interest.”

Textile Development

Materials for New Balance Lifestyle footwear lines are sourced globally, including in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

“This is a constant and ever-evolving process. Savania and our team are constantly meeting with material vendors, going to shows like Linneapelle in Italy and sourcing materials from Italy, India, Asia, Spain,” says Alana Choquette, New Balance product manager.

“We are always researching and developing new textiles,” says Davies-Keiller. “Sometimes there is a long lead time out and sometime it’s a two-year process to get something fresh and new. It is a process. We work very closely with mills.

In some cases we may not have earmarked the technology for any specific product, but it may be a technology that we know is exciting and we know we will find an application for. Then, sometimes you have a technology that you build a product around.”

While New Balance’s Lifestyle lines do not need to meet the same performance needs of its running or outdoor-specific footwear, the technical specifications of its textiles are still held to a high standard. When determining which textiles to use, price is always a consideration, according to Coquette, who adds that style and fashion is also paramount for lifestyle.

“The feel and hand of textiles is extremely important for our premium product,” she notes. “And there is a threshold of durability our materials must have to be on our footwear so durability is also important from a quality perspective. As far as performance, DDC is known for pushing the envelope with material technology.”

Specific new textiles that the team is excited about using are fabrics from the Schoeller Spirit collection. The non-elastic fabric made of high-tech fibers is characterized mainly by its aesthetically attractive appearance.

In the retro, yet futuristic New Balance 420 shoe, a Schoeller sheer nylon with deco directional embroidery is used. “We kept this material as lightly backed as we could – and without any foam – to maintain the sheer essence the textile was meant to display,” explains Sharon Hall, New Balance product development.

The 420 outer features a Satin Suede from Wolverine Leathers and a Translucent Corded Rip Stop fabric from Schoeller, which is lightweight, durable, breathable and waterproof.

Sustainability

New Balance’s Restricted Substances Program addresses chemicals in materials and takes into account international legislated standards.

Additionally, the company’s Environmental Preferred Materials (EPM) program is designed to continually improve the environmental profile of its footwear products by specifying materials that have reduced eco impact.

“We have specific goals each quarter for the amount of EPM that needs to be in each new style,” says Alan Lekan, senior sustainable materials developer at New Balance. “Key EPM types we incorporate are laces and linings made from part recycled polyester and leather from tanneries that have met an independent, third-party standard for strong environmental management practices. This is assessed by the new Leather Working Group protocol developed by a collaboration of leading brands, tanneries and leather experts including BLC Leather Tech.”

Additionally, New Balance has a comprehensive program in place to replace as much adhesives in footwear production with low-no solvent adhesives as is currently technically feasible. However, the company is quite careful about using the word “green.”

“Actually, ‘green’ is not a term we like to use here because it can naively imply no environmental impact,” says Lekan. “The fact is that all consumer products have environmental impact, some more, some less and some unacceptable. It is the brand's job to analyze those impacts, identify which ones are greatest and continually work to reduce them, thus improving environmental performance. We are doing this on a continuous improvement basis.”

In its future textile sourcing, DDC and New Balance expect to work more with natural fibers and are conscious of looking at eco issues from plant to vendor and along the supply chain. “DDC looks outside of the box for materials and looking ahead in our marriage with New Balance, you will see some surprising and fresh innovations,” says Davies-Keiller.

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