In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, New Balance’s Vice-President of Public Affairs. Matthew LeBritton, said he feels New Balance will move forward now that Trump is in charge.
This was meant in relation to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, implemented by Obama. LeBritton was saying that the agreement hindered the only company still making athletic shoes within the US, whilst the deal also helped overseas competitors.
It must be noted that both Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were opposed to the TTP - so New Balance supporting Trump’s opposition to it would be the same as them supporting Sanders’s.
For some reason, a number of people took this to mean that New Balance, as a company, was backing Trump completely. That they supported his building of a wall, and his apparent Islamophobia. Owners of New Balance shoes burnt them, cut them in half, and did all kinds of things. Kind of stupid when a pair costs about £35.
It wasn’t helped at all by the fact neo-Nazi Andrew Aglin stated that New Balance was now the official “uniform” of the Trump Revolution. Despite New Balance releasing a statement saying they do not support bigotry or hate, Aglin then for some reason claimed that the company’s twitter had been hacked (a lie).
In their tweet, New Balance made it clear that they don’t support any form of hatred or intolerance, being an organisation that promotes diversity. They are, to quote the apologetic tweet in question, “a 110-year-old company with five factories in the U.S. and thousands of employees worldwide from all races, genders, cultures and sexual orientations”. They maintain core values that we should all keep. Let’s not jump on the bandwagon of hate towards the company due to a poorly worded statement.
It must be clear that New Balance haven’t come out and said they want immigrants gone ASAP. They’ve simply had it said for them, that one of his policies would be good for their business. Hardly something they should be ashamed of?
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