New Balance customers are burning their shoes and plan to boycott the shoe company after a representative made a “remark” about Donald Trump’s policies.
New Balance: “The Obama admin turned a deaf ear to us & frankly w/ Pres-Elect Trump we feel things are going to move in the right direction”
— Sara Germano (@germanotes) November 9, 2016
Reports Teen Vogue:
It all started because of a quote from New Balance’s Vice President of Public Affairs, Matt LeBretton. On Wednesday afternoon Wall Street Journal reporter Sara Germano tweeted a quote from LeBretton that appeared to indicate that the New Balance VP and the company were in favor of the changes a Donald Trump presidency would bring. “New Balance: ‘The Obama admin turned a deaf ear to us & frankly w/ Pres-Elect Trump we feel things are going to move in the right direction,'” she tweeted.
But the quote appears to have been taken out of context.
LeBretton, however, has gone on the defense, saying this is all a gross exaggeration by the media. The New Balance VP claims that the quote which sparked so much outrage was taken out of context.“The statement [quoted by Sarah Germano] is correct in the context of trade, not talking about large geo-political anything, but in the context of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement,” he told Buzzfeed News. “It’s inaccurate. Everything I’ve said is in the context of trade.”
Nevertheless, customers began burning and destroying their sneakers.
It didn’t take long before the quote was circulated in footwear and fashion circles, snowballing into a story of its own. As the news spread, footwear fanatics who took issue with the sexist, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric Donald Trump used during his campaign — and New Balance’s endorsement of it — began protesting the company by posting photos and videos on social media depicting defiled pairs of shoes.
@SoleCollector@newbalancepic.twitter.com/r3j6sXsdAP
— Jon Targaryen (@tbrooks__) November 10, 2016
@SoleCollector@newbalance good to know. I made a little bonfire tonight :) pic.twitter.com/yOdCTbQgac
— skreetware (@milftears) November 10, 2016
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would make it harder for New Balance to do business within the United States. The company made a statement to the website Sole Collector: “New Balance publicly supported the trade positions of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump prior to election day that focused on American manufacturing job creation and we continue to support them today.”
Another anti-Trump movement is planning on boycotting 32 companies that sell Trump products.
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