Why does New Balance make barely any racing shoes?

There is a NB rep a while ago who said they were coming out with a new line soon. Well its really time for them to be out now. What gives?

They also have the RC205. This says that there is a new version for Europe for fall.

http://www.hypebeast.com/image/2010/01/new-balance-europe-2010-fall-winter-preview-8.jpg

At least bring back the RC152 in a normal color. Best shoe value there was.

Don't forget that New Balance markets additional models for other markets. For example, on their Japanese site they list 4 "racing" shoes: RC760, RC1225, RC801, RC130x. They also have 3 "race trainers," RT760, RT801, and RT965.

The question has been asked why shoe companies sell more minimal racing type shoes in Japan than in the USA and my answer is simple: americans are fat joggers so companies concentrate on that market in the usa.

NB makes shoes for fat old men. At least for the US market. I have one pair, that I got for free, and I would NEVER wear them to a race. I wear them to jog-with-dog.

NB is focusing on fashion shoes and improving their NBX trainers. Those 205's mentioned are from the lifestyle i.e. fashion division, are slated to be released in many colors.

rsbones wrote:

The question has been asked why shoe companies sell more minimal racing type shoes in Japan than in the USA and my answer is simple: americans are fat joggers so companies concentrate on that market in the usa.

That doesn't explain why they won't make the shoes available in the US market for the handful of us who would buy them. Even if they can't convice retailers to carry them because the shoes would clutter up their inventory they could make them available to internet dealers.

Have the internet dealers bothered to ask? If they contacted the same distributors that the Japanese shops use, or ask new balance directly, I wonder if they'd truly have trouble stocking those models for u.s/international online shoppers?

I suspect the online shops just don't go out of their way to search for shoes: they just take the promotional materials and catalogs sent to them and pick what to carry. Since new balance doesn't promote those shoes here, the dealers here don't even have them on their radar.

New Balance caters to the big boned cankle crowd.

NB is a corporation, they don't make enough profit from contributing resources to very niche markets. Compared with NB, Asics has far more product diversity and annual sales to support bringing over more than just the Tarther and the Piranha to the US, yet they don't. The biggest sources of sales for NB are big box stores and running specialty stores, and racing flats aren't exactly flying off the shelves of either. Maybe you could start up an internet retailer to import, market, and sell Mizuno, Asics, NB, Nike, etc. flats available to the Japanese market. Given the recent rise of the minimalist movement, you could stand to make a killing by being the pioneer in the US market.

HRE wrote:

That doesn't explain why they won't make the shoes available in the US market for the handful of us who would buy them. Even if they can't convice retailers to carry them because the shoes would clutter up their inventory they could make them available to internet dealers.

Maybe I'd make a killing but more likely I'd drive the business into the ground. Again, I understand where the prime market is but don't get why they don't make their Japanese shoes available on their website or to specialty shops. It doesn't matter to me, I hardly ever buy from NB though I did have the RC 150 and thought it was a good shoe. I just don't get it.

I don't get why you expect the rest of the world to cater to your whims. If there were a viable market clamoring for these shoes then they'd be available. I look at Runningwarehouse.com's racing flat offerings and see at least a dozen pretty good shoes that would work as well as any of the shoes they sell in Japan. Looks to me like this is mostly about people just gratuitously wanting what they can't easily obtain.

Yes. I'm just pining away here because I can't buy a New Balance racer. Can you read, jackass? I said I don't really care, I just don't understand what their reasoning is.

Can you read, a-hole? The reasoning is really clear, does someone have to rub your nose in it? And if you don't really care, then why respond at all?

Ok. So you can't read.

Who cares? So buy your flats from another company, it's not like you slugs are contractually obligated to NB. Jesus.

You can't even think for yourself, so I'm at least one-up on you.

The fact of the matter is, I live less than a mile from their worldwide headquarters and I can't purchase any flats from them without significant effort. One would figure that there'd be a little bit of demand in this area, but maybe they just don't have the technological knowhow to keep up - even their revamped chi-running shoe weighs almost 10oz.

My first reaction to them signing Jenny Barringer was, "Uh, does she actually race in their shoes? Do they have shoes she would race in?"

I like their MT100 trail racers.

Jumping right in wrote:

The fact of the matter is, I live less than a mile from their worldwide headquarters and I can't purchase any flats from them without significant effort. One would figure that there'd be a little bit of demand in this area, but maybe they just don't have the technological knowhow to keep up - even their revamped chi-running shoe weighs almost 10oz.

Two things:

-I was always under the impression that the 800 was made as a trainer for underpronators, not chi runners.

-What companies out there even have a "minimalist" type of shoe? Seriously, what major companies are putting any work into it at all?