September 14, 2005
BOSTON – September 14, 2005 – New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. announced today that it has signed a license agreement with The Levy Group, Inc. for women's and men's performance and lifestyle outerwear. The Levy Group is an established leader in the design, development and production of premier outerwear, producing more than five million garments annually on four continents.
Headquartered in New York, The Levy Group will manufacture, market, sell and distribute a New Balance Performance Outerwear collection beginning with the Fall 2006 season. The collection will be presented to key retailers and the media in late December 2005.
"The addition of outerwear to our Licensed Products program enhances our goal of reinforcing New Balance as a true sports brand," says Ed Haddad, Vice President of Intellectual Properties & Licensed Products at New Balance. "We expect the New Balance Outerwear collection to complement our existing performance apparel line and provide performance and lifestyle outerwear to our consumers who participate in outdoor sports and fitness activities."
"Our focus is to create the highest performing apparel products in the outerwear market," says Todd Katz, president of New Balance Outerwear at The Levy Group. "New Balance has built fierce brand loyalty around fit, comfort, and durability and we will stay true to these core values."
The Levy Group will produce a comprehensive, integrated layering system of shell garments, fleece, and insulated garments for the initial Fall 2006 offering. All of the garments will incorporate fit, comfort, and durability and use technologically-advanced materials and manufacturing techniques. The garments will be engineered and designed for alpine trekking, hiking, snow sports, and outdoor lifestyle. Natural fibers such as merino wool, goose down, and performance cotton will be incorporated into the lifestyle collection. Lightweight travel parkas, rainwear, trekking bottoms, and performance mid-layers will round out the collection offering for Spring 2007.
The collection launch will be supported with a comprehensive marketing campaign consisting of in-store displays, print advertising, media relations, online support, and outreach to consumers at regional events.
Todd Katz has joined The Levy Group as President of New Balance Outerwear. Todd worked for W.L Gore in the Gore-Tex fabric division for six years. Prior to joining The Levy Group, he worked at The North Face as senior vice president in charge of sales and merchandising. Shannon Hayward has been named Vice President. Anne Hamilton is Design Director in charge of product development for New Balance Outerwear at The Levy Group. Anne previously worked for Asics, Skea, and The North Face. She is the winner of ten Snow Country design awards.
New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA, is a leading manufacturer of technologically innovative width-sized performance footwear and athletic apparel for women, men, and children. The range of product categories includes running, walking, cross training, basketball, tennis, adventure, and kids. Dunham joined the New Balance family in Fall 1998. Dunham an outdoor performance brand known for its technologies, innovations and development of footwear that is lightweight, comfortable and inspired by the world outside. New Balance acquired the rights to the PF Flyers brand in February 2000. First introduced in 1937 by the B.F. Goodrich Company, PF Flyers was re-launched in Spring 2003 as an authentic brand of active casual footwear. Aravon® comfort performance brand footwear debuted in January 2004 as an unsurpassed blend of fit, comfort, support and style. In early 2004, New Balance acquired Warrior Lacrosse, widely recognized as the world's most cutting edge manufacturer of lacrosse equipment, after introducing the Warrior Burn by New Balance lacrosse shoe. New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. employs more than 2,600 people around the globe, and in 2004 reported worldwide sales of $1.5 billion. For more information please visit http://www.newbalance.com.
