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New Balance sales grew 19% last year to $9.2 billion as the legacy sneaker giant continued to outperform the global footwear market and take share from floundering competitors like Nike . The 120-year-old Boston-based footwear brand, which is private, exclusively shared its 2025 results with CNBC. In addition to the sharp 2025 growth, the retailer said it could reach its goal of $10 billion in annual revenue by the end of the year. "We're competitive. No question about it. But we want to make sure that as we get there and surpass it, that the quality of our business is first and foremost," CEO Joe Preston told CNBC in an interview. "We don't want empty calories here. We want to make sure that we are delivering upon the premise that we have, which is to become a premium brand. Over the past five years, we've done exactly that around the globe."
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Since 2020, New Balance has grown sales by a staggering 180%, placing it among a handful of standout competitors that supersized their businesses as Nike changed its business model and lost significant market share. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Nike doubled down on its direct selling strategy that cut off longtime wholesale suppliers so the sneaker giant could grow through its own website and stores. While the strategy briefly boosted sales and promised higher margins, it opened up critical shelf space at strategic retailers that companies like New Balance, Brooks Running, On and Deckers rushed to fill.
With so much focus on building out a direct selling model, which can be more complex than distributing to wholesalers, Nike also fell behind on innovation and lost its edge in the performance footwear market. That created further opportunity for competitors like New Balance. Nike's former CEO, John Donahoe, previously blamed remote work during the pandemic for the retailer's innovation slowdown, but Preston said the global crisis created an opportunity for his team to come together in ways they hadn't previously to implement new strategies. "We met every Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m., we still have that meeting weekly today, and it allowed us to get on a global offense … we came out of Covid stronger than any other company in our industry," said Preston. "The marketplace disruption that's been taking place, the examples of Nike, sure, all that stuff is real and at the same time, I don't think it's the reason that we have begun to emerge."
— Source: CNBC Business (https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/19/new-balance-2025-sales-jump-19percent-as-brand-takes-share-from-nike.html)
