New Balance Is Gunning To Become The Sneaker Brand Of The U.S. Military

As the U.S. Senate debates a massive new defense policy bill this week, one provision in it causing some disagreement has little to do with national security. It’s about sneakers, and which brand servicewomen and servicemen will wear. If bill S. 2943 passes and its provisions are signed into law with section 671 intact, it would require that the Pentagon bring its footwear policy in line with a 1941 law known as the Berry Amendment, which stipulates that clothing and other products used by the military be made in the U.S. An exception was made several years back for athletic shoes, mainly because of a shortage of domestic options. But recently, sneaker manufacturer New Balance has been lobbying to remove the exemption. As Bloomberg reports, the Boston-based brand still makes a significant portion of its footwear in the U.S. A quarter of the shoes it sells in the U.S. are American-made, it told Bloomberg, while big competitors such as Nike do their manufacturing almost entirely overseas. Read more at Quartz.