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New Balance embraced by neo-Nazis as "the official shoe of white people"

It’s been a rough week for New Balance. Not long after coming under literal fire for having...
Newstalk
Newstalk

15.54 16 Nov 2016


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New Balance embraced by neo-Na...

New Balance embraced by neo-Nazis as "the official shoe of white people"

Newstalk
Newstalk

15.54 16 Nov 2016


Share this article


It’s been a rough week for New Balance. Not long after coming under literal fire for having said that Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency would be a good thing for the company, which saw social media users set their pairs alight, now the sports shoe brand has been championed by neo-Nazis as “the official shoes of white people.”

Over the weekend, New Balance defended its argument that the new President-elect would be beneficial to the brand, telling the Boston Globe it wants “to make more shoes in the US, not less,” but saying that it also supports the trade policies outlined by both Trump and Hillary Clinton during the election campaign.

In another  statement posted to the New Balance Twitter account, the sports brand moved to distance itself from other ideas espoused by Donald Trump, such as temporarily banning Muslims from legally entering the US, the mass deportation of undocumented migrants, and the construction of a wall along the Mexican border.

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But the furore surrounding New Balance only serve to stoke the flames of admiration of the brand in neo-Nazi blogger Andrew Anglin. Writing on his blog, the Daily Stormer, Anglin rallied behind the bruised New Balance brand, declaring the shoes, 25% of which are made in the US, as the “Official Shoes of White People.”

“I’m a Nike guy. Or rather, I was,” Anglin wrote on his blog, which offers opinions promoting white-supremacist ideas and anti-Semitic viewpoints. “It’s time to get on-board with New Balance now. Their brave act just made them the official brand of the Trump Revolution.”

Anglin then invites his readers and followers to consider replacing their own footwear with New Balance shoes, describing them as part of a new “uniform” and referring to the company’s TPP statement as “a gesture to support White people and to support US manufacturing.”

“This will be fantastic,” he adds, “We will be able to recognise one another by our sportswear.”

Having become embroiled in a second scandal in the space of a week, New Balance released a second statement, saying it does not “tolerate bigotry or hate in any form.”

Anglin, not to be outdone, then also replied to the second statement, claiming that the New Balance Twitter account had been hacked by liberal elites attempting to censor the company’s new-found “Republican agenda.”

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