New Balance has opened its expanded Central Maine facility in Skowhegan, marking a $65m investment that reinforces the company’s long-standing commitment to American manufacturing.
The expansion adds a 120,000-square-foot, single-story wing to the existing five-story factory building purchased by the company in 1981. An additional 20,000 square feet of the original facility is also being renovated. The site now employs 400 associates producing the brand’s popular MADE athletic footwear, part of a U.S. manufacturing network that sets New Balance apart as the only major athletic shoe company still operating factories domestically.
The Skowhegan site joins four other New Balance manufacturing facilities in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire (opening in 2025), where roughly 1,200 workers cut, mold, sew, and assemble materials into finished footwear. About 600 associates are employed across New Balance’s Central Maine and Norway factories, as well as at retail locations in Kittery, Oxford, and Skowhegan.
New Balance’s MADE line, which contains at least 70 percent domestic value, represents a limited but important share of U.S. sales. The brand’s ongoing investments underscore its position as the last major athletic shoe manufacturer maintaining production operations in the United States.
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