INDEX / DIRECTORY / NEW BALANCE

New Balance

Fashion & Apparel 54 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-08-12
BDS-1000 Score 106 /1000 E Tier E - Limited
Military ↗ 0.01 Digital ↗ 0.00 Economic ↗ 1.16 Political ↗ 1.47

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New Balance - BDS-1000 Forensic Dossier

Key Findings

  • Political/Settlements: Secondary sources attribute New Balance’s Israeli retail footprint to franchise partner Delta Israel Brands, a subsidiary of Delta Galil Industries, which operates branches in the East Jerusalem settlement neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze’ev and Ramot and in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, and has historically operated a warehouse in the Barkan Industrial Zone settlement; this attribution is carried as an unresolved discrepancy, since New Balance’s own Israel website names Silon Sports Ltd. as its sole importer.123
  • Political/Advocacy: BDS Movement called for a boycott of New Balance beginning in 2013–2014 over its sponsorship of the Jerusalem Marathon, a route through occupied East Jerusalem co-organized with Israeli government ministries; no public evidence identified of New Balance withdrawing or of continued sponsorship after 2014.45
  • Economic: New Balance’s Israel market access runs through arm’s-length importers/franchisees (Silon Sports Ltd. for direct retail; Delta Israel Brands for broader distribution claims), not a company-owned subsidiary, and New Balance itself does not appear by name in the OHCHR settlement-business database.36
  • Not found: No public evidence identified of any military contracting, dual-use products, defence-supply-chain integration, or Israeli-origin digital/surveillance/cybersecurity technology relationship - New Balance’s only confirmed retail-tech vendor (Volumental, 3D foot scanning) is Swedish, not Israeli.78

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameNew Balance Athletics, Inc.
JurisdictionUnited States (Massachusetts); privately held, not SEC-registered
Headquarters100 Guest Street, Boston, Massachusetts
SectorAthletic footwear and apparel manufacturing/retail
OwnershipPrivately held; Davis family (Jim Davis, Chairman; Anne Davis, Vice Chairman) hold an estimated ~95–98% majority stake; no institutional or public investors on record910
Key Executives / GovernanceJim Davis (Chairman), Anne Davis (Vice Chairman), Joe Preston (President and CEO); Robert DeMartini (former CEO); company does not publicly disclose a complete board1112
Israeli-Nexus SummaryIndirect: retail/franchise ties (Delta Israel Brands / Silon Sports Ltd.) with settlement-linked operations, plus a discontinued 2013–2014 sponsorship controversy; no direct military, digital, or corporate-ownership nexus identified

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

New Balance is a privately held, Boston-headquartered athletic footwear and apparel manufacturer with no direct corporate presence in Israel. Its documented Israel/Palestine nexus runs almost entirely through third-party commercial relationships and a decade-old sponsorship controversy, not through direct ownership, manufacturing, defence contracting, or technology supply. The four domain audits underlying this dossier - military (Military), digital (Digital), economic (Economic), and political (Political) - converge on a consistent picture: New Balance’s exposure is concentrated in the political/settlements vector, is largely indirect (attaching to a franchise partner’s parent company), and is unsupported in the military and digital vectors.

The most substantiated vector is political/settlements. New Balance’s Israeli retail operations are run under franchise by Delta Israel Brands, an 80%-owned subsidiary of Delta Galil Industries (TASE: DELG), which operates retail branches in the East Jerusalem settlement neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze’ev and Ramot, and in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, and has historically operated a 1,680 sq m warehouse in the Barkan Industrial Zone settlement.12 Delta Galil/Delta Israel Brands are listed in the UN OHCHR database of business enterprises operating in Israeli settlements (entries confirmed in both the 2020 original listing and the June 2023 and September 2025 updates, covering 158 enterprises).2615 Separately, BDS Movement’s national committee called for a boycott of New Balance in 2013, reiterated in March 2014, over the company’s sponsorship of the Jerusalem Marathon - a race route through occupied East Jerusalem co-organized with Israeli government ministries and cited alongside UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk’s characterization of associated East Jerusalem demolitions.45 No public evidence identified that New Balance withdrew sponsorship in response, but equally no public evidence identified that the sponsorship continued past 2014; 2024 reporting on the marathon’s 13th edition does not list New Balance among current sponsors.1617

Economic exposure is real but limited and structurally indirect. New Balance’s own Israel-facing FAQ identifies Silon Sports Ltd. as its official importer for approximately 20 years, operating two storefronts, an arm’s-length importer/licensee arrangement rather than a company-owned subsidiary.3 A separate and only partially corroborated thread - sourced from a cluster of lower-provenance consumer-advocacy sites - asserts that New Balance’s Israeli retail is instead (or additionally) run through “Delta Israel,” with franchise fees indirectly supporting Delta Galil’s settlement warehouse; this is flagged in the underlying audit as an unresolved discrepancy, since it is not corroborated by Delta Israel’s own official brand-portfolio page (which does not list New Balance among its licensed brands) nor by Who Profits’ or AFSC Investigate’s Delta Galil profiles.3181920 This dossier carries that discrepancy as unresolved rather than treating it as established fact. A claim that New Balance has manufactured its 990-series shoes in Israel since the 1980s is likewise uncorroborated in the audit record.18

Two vectors are not supported by evidence at all. The military audit found no public evidence of any contract, tender, dual-use product line, or supply-chain relationship between New Balance and Israeli defence bodies or defence primes; New Balance does not appear in the Israeli Ministry of Defence’s SIBAT export-promotion directory.7 Several viral or aggregator-sourced claims - a purported New Balance x Ahava collaboration, an “IDF uniform logo” social-media claim, and a claim that franchise partner Delta Galil manufactures IDF combat uniforms - could not be corroborated against primary sources and are treated in this dossier as unverified, not established.21 The digital audit likewise found no evidence of any relationship with Israeli-origin cybersecurity, surveillance, biometric, cloud, or AI vendors; New Balance’s only confirmed retail-technology vendor, Volumental (3D foot-scanning), is Swedish-founded with no Israeli nexus.822

Political-vector findings beyond the settlement/marathon nexus are similarly thin. New Balance issued no public statement on the Gaza war (2023–2025), a silence made more notable by contrast with its documented $1,000,000 Ukraine humanitarian pledge (2022) and its Black Lives Matter statement and donation commitment (2020).232425 No public evidence identified of PAC donations, executive statements, or corporate resource mobilization directed toward Israeli state or advocacy organizations, nor of Chairman Jim Davis’s well-documented pattern of U.S. domestic political giving extending to Israel-focused causes.262728 A historical, discontinued “Israeli Army” colorway of the 577 model from the 1990s survives only as a collector-market curiosity with no current product line.29

Taken together, the evidence record supports a documented but narrow and largely indirect nexus - concentrated in settlement-linked franchise retail and a lapsed marathon-sponsorship controversy - with no substantiation in the military or digital domains. This evidentiary profile is consistent with the final BRS of 106 (Tier E, Minimal), driven by the political domain’s marginally higher V-Domain score (1.47) among four generally low, evidence-thin domain scores.

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
1972Jim Davis acquires New Balance; company remains privately held thereafter with no documented Israel nexus at founding.910
1990sNew Balance produces an “Israeli Army” colorway of the 577 model (M577BSL), a discontinued product now documented only in sneaker-collector retrospectives.29
2011 (documented; revalidated 2021)Who Profits documents a 1,680 sq m Delta Galil warehouse operating in the Barkan Industrial Zone settlement, West Bank.1
25 Feb 2013BDS National Committee calls for a boycott of New Balance and Crowne Plaza/IHG over Jerusalem Marathon sponsorship.4
11–12 Mar 2014BDS National Committee reiterates the boycott call, citing the marathon’s route through occupied East Jerusalem and its co-organization with Israeli government ministries.5
2020Delta Galil Industries/Delta Israel Brands first listed in the OHCHR database of business enterprises operating in Israeli settlements.2
30 May 2020New Balance issues a public Black Lives Matter statement and pledges a 10,000-pair shoe donation and hiring targets.24
Mar 2022New Balance pledges $1,000,000 to Ukraine humanitarian relief and suspends shipments to Russia.23
Jun 2023OHCHR settlement-business database update confirms Delta Galil/Delta Israel Brands listing among 158 enterprises.615
3 Oct 2023New Balance formally announces expanded Volumental 3D foot-scanning partnership (Swedish vendor, no Israeli nexus).8
2023–2025Gaza war period; no public evidence identified of any New Balance corporate statement on the conflict.30
Sep 2025OHCHR database update (158 entities) again lists Delta Galil Industries and Delta Israel Brands Ltd. as entries #46–47.215
Sep 2025Saucony (a different company) ends its Jerusalem Marathon sponsorship following boycott pressure; reporting does not associate New Balance with the marathon at this date.1731

Corporate Overview

New Balance Athletics, Inc. is a privately held U.S. corporation headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, majority-owned by the Davis family (Jim Davis, Chairman; Anne Davis, Vice Chairman), with an estimated 95–98% family ownership stake and no institutional or public investors.910 The company does not file SEC Form 10-K, 20-F, or other public securities disclosures, meaning no securities filing exists in which Israel-related trade or human-rights risk would be disclosed.79

New Balance has no company-owned subsidiary or direct corporate presence in Israel. Its market access runs through two documented, and partly conflicting, third-party arrangements:

  1. Silon Sports Ltd. - described on New Balance’s own Israel website as “the official and only importer of New Balance in Israel for the past 20 years,” operating a factory store in Tel Aviv and a brand store in Rishon Lezion.3
  2. Delta Israel Brands Ltd. - an 80%-owned subsidiary of Delta Galil Industries (TASE: DELG), reported by consumer-boycott aggregator sources to operate three New Balance-branded retail stores (Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa) under franchise.131819 This attribution is not corroborated by Delta Israel’s own official brand-portfolio page, which lists its licensed brands (including Adidas, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren, Victoria’s Secret, Converse, and others) without mentioning New Balance, nor by the Who Profits or AFSC Investigate profiles of Delta Galil, which likewise omit New Balance.31920 The audit record treats this as an unresolved discrepancy rather than a verified sourcing relationship.

Delta Galil Industries, the parent of Delta Israel Brands, is CEO’d by Isaac Dabah (46.61% shareholder) and chaired by Noam Lautman (9.78% shareholder); Delta Israel Brands operates retail branches in the East Jerusalem settlement neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze’ev and Ramot, and in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, and Delta Galil has historically operated a warehouse in the Barkan Industrial Zone settlement.1 This settlement nexus attaches to New Balance’s franchise partner’s parent company, not to New Balance Athletics, Inc. directly, and no public evidence identified of New Balance-branded manufacturing or company-owned retail operating inside a settlement.12

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of any contract, tender award, or memorandum of understanding between New Balance and the Israeli Ministry of Defence, IDF, Israel Prison Service, or Israel Border Police; New Balance does not appear in the Israeli MOD’s SIBAT 2018/19 Homeland & Cyber Defense export directory.7 No public evidence identified of dual-use or tactical product lines, export-licence applications, defence supply-chain integration with Elbit Systems, IAI, Rafael, or IMI/Elbit Land, logistical/base-services contracts, or munitions/weapons-platform involvement.7 The company’s franchise partner, Delta Galil, carries documented settlement retail and warehouse activity, but a secondary claim that Delta Galil manufactures IDF combat uniforms was not corroborated by the Who Profits or AFSC Investigate profiles consulted.7

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

New Balance is a civilian footwear and apparel manufacturer with no defence-sector business line identified anywhere in the public record. Its private ownership structure means no securities filings exist in which Israel-related risk would surface, but this cuts both ways: the absence of disclosure is itself consistent with the absence of a reportable defence relationship, and the SIBAT directory review is a direct, checkable negative. Several viral claims circulating about New Balance and Israeli military uniforms (a “logo on IDF uniforms” social-media claim, a New Balance x Ahava collaboration) were traced to inaccessible or unverifiable secondary sources and are explicitly not corroborated in the audit; a BDS “secondary target” listing claim likewise rests on a cached snippet from an inaccessible source.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of any relationship between New Balance and Israeli-founded or Israeli-origin cybersecurity, cloud, surveillance, biometric, or AI vendors (Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, NICE, Verint, Claroty, Trigo, BriefCam, AnyVision/Oosto, Trax, or others).22 The one confirmed retail-technology vendor relationship - Volumental 3D foot-scanning, in use since 2017 and expanded via a companion app and a 2023 concept-store launch - is Swedish-founded (Stockholm, December 2012), with no Israeli nexus identified.822 No public evidence identified of New Balance participation in Project Nimbus or any Israeli government cloud programme, of R&D or engineering presence in Israel, or of patent/licensing arrangements with Israeli technology institutions.22

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The digital audit is comprehensive and finds a clean negative across every sub-category examined: enterprise stack, biometrics/surveillance, cloud infrastructure, defence/intelligence technology, AI/algorithmic systems, and R&D footprint. The only technology relationship of substance identified - Volumental - is affirmatively non-Israeli, which itself narrows rather than expands any digital-vector exposure. This represents the strongest exculpatory finding in the dossier.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

New Balance’s documented Israel-market presence is retail-only and runs through third-party importers/franchisees rather than company-owned operations. Silon Sports Ltd. is named by New Balance’s own Israel website as its 20-year official importer, operating two storefronts.3 A separate, only partially corroborated thread attributes New Balance’s Israeli retail to Delta Israel Brands (Delta Galil subsidiary), whose parent operates settlement retail branches and has historically operated a Barkan Industrial Zone warehouse; this dual/conflicting attribution is flagged as an unresolved discrepancy in the underlying audit rather than resolved fact.13181920 No public evidence identified of New Balance capital investment, manufacturing, R&D facilities, or real estate inside Israel or the occupied territories, and no public evidence identified of personal or family-office investment by Jim or Anne Davis into Israeli entities.910

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

New Balance’s arm’s-length importer/licensee model is a materially weaker form of economic linkage than direct ownership or manufacturing, and the audit is explicit that any settlement-warehouse connection runs through a franchise partner’s parent company rather than New Balance itself. The company is privately held and issues no market-segment financial disclosures, so Israel-market revenue cannot be sized, but no evidence surfaced characterizing Israel as a strategic market for New Balance. A claimed 2022 Tel Aviv Marathon sponsorship, and continuing New Balance sponsorship of the Jerusalem Marathon after 2014, could not be corroborated by any primary source; by 2024, reporting identifies Saucony, not New Balance, as the marathon’s shoe sponsor.1617

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

New Balance’s political-vector nexus rests on two documented threads: (1) the Jerusalem Marathon sponsorship controversy (2013–2014), in which BDS Movement called for boycott and divestment citing the route’s traversal of occupied East Jerusalem and the event’s co-organization with Israeli government ministries, invoking UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk’s “ethnic cleansing” characterization of associated demolitions;45 and (2) the settlement-linked retail operations of franchise partner Delta Israel Brands / Delta Galil, listed in the OHCHR settlement-business database across its 2020, June 2023, and September 2025 updates.12615 New Balance issued no public statement on the Gaza war (2023–2025), a notable asymmetry against its documented $1,000,000 Ukraine pledge (2022) and Black Lives Matter statement/donation (2020).232425 New Balance is a registered federal lobbying client (~$210,000, 2024 cycle) with no Israel-specific lobbying activity identified; Chairman Jim Davis has a well-documented pattern of U.S. domestic political giving (Trump Victory, a Romney-aligned super PAC from which the company publicly distanced itself, and Boston city-council races) with no public evidence identified of giving to FIDF, JNF/KKL, AIPAC, or comparable Israel-focused organizations.262728

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of New Balance itself being named in the OHCHR settlement database - the listing attaches to Delta Galil/Delta Israel Brands, its franchise partner’s parent, and a direct PDF-text review of the June 2023 update did not return legible matches for either “New Balance” or “Delta Galil,” a stated limitation of PDF extraction rather than confirmed absence.6 No public evidence identified of New Balance hosting Israeli officials, entering formal state partnerships beyond the lapsed marathon sponsorship, or participating in an official “Brand Israel” campaign.32 No public evidence identified of HR actions against employees over pro-Palestinian speech, of executive statements on the conflict, or of any New Balance leadership role in pro-Israel advocacy organizations (AIPAC, CFI, ADL) or settlement-linked organizations (Regavim, Im Tirtzu).33 No public evidence identified confirming continued Jerusalem Marathon sponsorship after 2014, and 2024 marathon reporting does not list New Balance among sponsors.1617

Named Entities and Evidence Map

BDS-1000 Score (V4)

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military1.200.500.800.01
Digital0.000.000.000.00
Economic4.203.004.501.16
Political4.503.205.001.47

V_MAX is driven by Political (1.47), reflecting the documented Jerusalem Marathon boycott campaign and the OHCHR-listed settlement retail operations of franchise partner Delta Galil/Delta Israel Brands - the most directly evidenced vector in the record, even though it attaches indirectly through a franchise relationship. Economic (1.16) reflects the same franchise/importer structure viewed through an economic lens. Military (0.01) and Digital (0.00) reflect comprehensive domain reviews that returned no corroborated military or digital nexus. The resulting BRS of 106 places New Balance in Tier E (Minimal), consistent with a company whose Israel/Palestine exposure is indirect, franchise-mediated, and concentrated in a single lapsed sponsorship controversy and unresolved settlement-retail attribution, rather than direct operational, military, or technological involvement.

Methodology Note

Footnotes

  1. https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/3655 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_operating_in_West_Bank_settlements ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  3. https://www.newbalance.co.il/en/FAQ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  4. https://bdsmovement.net/news/boycott-new-balance-and-crowne-plaza-over-their-sponsorship-apartheid-marathon ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. https://bdsmovement.net/news/new-balance-and-intercontinental-hotel-group-drop-sponsorship-jerusalem-apartheid-marathon-or ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session31/database-hrc3136/23-06-30-Update-israeli-settlement-opt-database-hrc3136.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  7. https://www.sibat.mod.gov.il/industries/directory/documents/sibatdir-hls-en2018-19.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  8. https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/home/2023/7/10/new-balance-taps-volumental-3d-foot-scanner-solution-for-concept-store-launch-in-singapore ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Balance ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  10. https://www.forbes.com/profile/jim-davis/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  11. https://newbalance.newsmarket.com/leadership/joe-preston/s/7bdc9f50-13b8-46d8-aa10-a0df50a97526 ↩

  12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Davis_(businessman) ↩

  13. https://www.investing.com/equities/delta-israel-brands-company-profile ↩ ↩2

  14. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/new-balance-athletics/lobbying?id=D000036175 ↩

  15. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/un-human-rights-office-updates-database-businesses-involved-israeli ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  16. https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/03/08/record-40000-participants-join-13th-international-jerusalem-winner-marathon/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-sports-brand-saucony-drops-sponsorship-jerusalem-marathon-after-boycott-calls ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  18. https://explore.st-aug.edu/exp/new-balance-israel-how-the-sneaker-giant-navigates-the-contentious-boycott-debate ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  19. https://delta-israel.com/en/company-profile-2/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  20. https://investigate.afsc.org/company/delta-galil-industries ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  21. https://israelproducts.cloud/does-new-balance-support-israel/ ↩

  22. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/volumental/__K4e6ksVDoJbYj4bRuRXIYczdYXFCtgQBVmMp_b1Xj5g ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  23. https://newbalance.newsmarket.com/corporate-news/all/new-balance-pledges - 1-million-to-ukraine-humanitarian-relief/s/53ce8127-6b36-41e3-bc0b-dafd563f375e ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  24. https://hypebeast.com/2020/6/new-balance-10000-shoe-donation-atlana-ahmaud-arbery ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  25. https://twitter.com/newbalance/status/1268162965863268358 ↩ ↩2

  26. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/01/13/new-balance-founder-gave-nearly-trump/HEoVw5ig6OHhLKOc3dDorO/story.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  27. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-balance-distances-itself-from-donation-to-romney-supporting-super-pac/2011/08/10/gIQAJYK16I_story.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  28. https://www.dotnews.com/2023/09/06/new-balance-chairman-turns-city-council-races-after-spending-big/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  29. http://www.complex.com/sneakers/2013/06/50-things-you-didnt-know-about-new-balance/israeli-army ↩ ↩2

  30. https://www.timesofisrael.com/topic/new-balance/ ↩ ↩2

  31. https://marathonhandbook.com/saucony-ends-jerusalem-marathon-sponsorship/ ↩

  32. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Marathon ↩

  33. https://disoccupied.com/brand/New%20Balance/text/ ↩