New Balance Experience Another Huge Growth Year: 2024 Revenue Results

dominant streak continues and it’s not just on the streets but also in the books. With the well-documented rise of the dad shoe, strategic pushes into the performance market, experimental releases like the , and collaborations with the likes of , , Loro Paina and (to name a few!), it’s no wonder the Boston-headquartered brand has experienced accelerated growth in revenue since 2020. In 2023, , which was 23 per cent more than their revenue in 2022. This puts them in fourth position in the lineup of the five major brands (, , and ); however, they won’t be staying there for long. Their 2024 results are just in and they’ve got their eyes square on the top podium.

Last year, we posited that , and 2024 has definitely kept this energy, as President and CEO Joe Preston announced that their revenue for the year reached $7.8 billion (which is a 20 per cent increase from 2023). Marking their fourth year in a row with a growth rate over 20 per cent, their highest being 29.4 per cent between 2020 and 2021, New Balance are well and truly flexing their ability to stay focused and consistent. Where many brands would be tempted to capitalise on current trends and up product volume, Preston sees it differently stating, ‘Quite frankly, we could be bigger if we wanted to, but we use a selective distribution approach to manage the brand and not oversaturate.’

This restraint, or as clearly documented, New Balance’s strategy, is exactly what awards them with the title of the tortoise. Preston says the team are taking the ‘think global, but act local’ approach, which has involved focusing on wholesaler relationships (something Nike have struggled with recently) and investing in athlete partnerships. ‘The way we try to manage the marketplace … is making sure we show up how we want to show up. If we are stuck in the corner, then the customer is not going to be able to experience our brand.’ TLDR version: they’re prioritising quality over profit. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t setting high revenue goals, as New Balance aim to be a $10-billion brand in the next few years. If they keep up the increases they’ve experienced since 2020, they will reach this goal by 2026, and they are close on the heels of the Big Cat, who have had a slow year of growth based on their so far. If New Balance continue their over 20 per cent streak and PUMA don’t pick up the pace, there could be a move for third place.

To further demonstrate the significance of New Balance’s growth (and simply out of curiosity), we took the average growth rate over the past four years from both New Balance and Nike and used it to project their future revenue. Based on New Balance’s average of 23.1 per cent and Nike’s 8.5 per cent, they could overtake Nike’s total yearly revenue by 2039 – that’s just 15 years away. Of course, projecting future revenue ain’t that simple with a slew of other factors contributing to growth, but let’s just say, the hare better keep an eye out for the tortoise…