New Balance faces customer backlash over Trump comments
US shoe company New Balance is facing a consumer backlash after comments by its vice president for communications on Donald Trump’s opposition to TTIP were perceived as an endorsement of the president-elect. Customers circulated pictures of New Balance trainers being burned or thrown away, forcing the brand to release a statement clarifying its position. At the weekend, white supremacist website the Daily Stormer claimed the trainers were “the official shoes of white people” and encouraged readers to buy them. New Balance distanced itself from this support, commenting that the company rejected bigotry.

Before this month, New Balance was lucky if it generated a few hundred reactions to posts on its Facebook page. Now, the sneaker company’s page is flooded with impassioned commentary, and it has found itself compelled to make a statement distancing itself from white supremacists.

It started, when Matt LeBretton, the company’s vice president for communications, told The Wall Street Journal last week that “we feel things are going to move in the right direction” under Donald J. Trump. Mr. LeBretton’s comments were made in the context of Mr. Trump’s opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that New Balance says will hurt its production of shoes in the United States while rewarding competitors that make more of their products overseas.

Some consumers, however, saw that comment as a full-throated endorsement of Mr. Trump and reacted immediately, circulating images that showed New Balance shoes being burned or thrown in the trash. That led the brand to clarify its position through a statement in which it noted that it “publicly supported the trade positions of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump prior to Election Day that focused on American manufacturing job creation.” It also posted a statement to Facebook saying, “From the people who make our shoes to the people who wear them, we believe in acting with the utmost integrity and we welcome all walks of life.”