June 9, 2020 – New Balance proudly announced today that it has produced more than one million general-use face masks for the healthcare community since the brand began production in late March. Starting today, New Balance will offer a newly designed face mask for sale to the general public, called the NB Face Mask V3. In the coming weeks, NB also plans to sell an athletics-ready face mask.
“We are incredibly proud and humbled to do our part to help so many in our healthcare community by producing more than one million masks in the past two months,” says Dave Wheeler, Chief Operating Officer. “We are thankful that the innovative thinking of our associates, our long history of domestic manufacturing and the work of our highly skilled teams in our factories have allowed us to quickly adapt to help meet the immense mask needs of the healthcare community, and now the general public.”
Developed in consultation with local medical and R&D institutions, a team of industrial engineers and designers worked to produce NB’s first face mask prototype within 12 days, and by late April, production of two general use masks was scaled to a total of approximately 100,000 units per week between two New Balance factories located in Lawrence, MA and Norridgewock, ME. Assembly of the NB Face Mask V3 will take place in our Lawrence, MA factory.
The new NB Face Mask V3 is a 3-layer, lightweight and breathable, non-sterile physical barrier face mask with moldable nose piece. The three layers consist of a combination of polyester/TPU, suede polyester fabric, a polyurethane filtration foam and nylon tricot. The NB Face Mask V3 is washable, secures with over-ear loops and will be sold in packs of three for $24.99 on newbalance.com. Available for sale on June 9th.
About New Balance
New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA has the following mission: Demonstrating responsible leadership, we build global brands that athletes are proud to wear, associates are proud to create and communities are proud to host. Manufactured in the U.S. for over 75 years and representing a limited portion of our U.S. sales, New Balance Made U.S. is a premium collection that contains a domestic value of 70% or greater. New Balance owns five factories in New England and one in Flimby, U.K. New Balance employs approximately 8,000 associates around the globe, and in 2019 reported worldwide sales of $4.0 billion. To learn more about New Balance, please visit www.newbalance.com and for the latest press information please visit http://newbalance.newsmarket.com.
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