(BLOOMBERG) — As New Balance struggles to control its public-relations nightmare, with white supremacists declaring its sneakers “the official shoes of white people,” the company is learning the hard way to be more careful wading into politics.
Days after the shoe company drew ire for praising the trade policies of President-elect Donald Trump, a neo-Nazi blogger on Saturday declared his support for New Balance footwear, leaving the privately held, Boston-based company desperate to distance itself from hate groups.
The crisis began last week when a spokesman for New Balance, which opposed a White House-backed trade deal Trump has railed against, told a reporter that under Trump, “we feel things are going to move in the right direction.” Customers lashed out, sharing photos and videos on social media of New Balance sneakers in trash cans, in toilets, and set ablaze.