New Balance - Economic Audit

Supply Chain & Sourcing Relationships

New Balance’s Israeli retail operation is run through a third-party importer rather than a company-owned subsidiary: New Balance’s own Israel website states that “the site is owned by Silon Sports Ltd., the official and only importer of New Balance in Israel for the past 20 years” ¹. This is a first-party disclosure from newbalance.co.il and is the only primary-source statement identifying New Balance’s Israeli commercial counterpart ¹.

A cluster of low-provenance consumer-content sites (israelproducts.cloud, masjidalaqsa.com, and near-duplicate pages hosted on university subdomains) instead assert that New Balance’s Israeli operations are run via “Delta Israel,” a subsidiary of Delta Galil Industries, and that franchise fees paid to Delta Israel indirectly fund Delta Galil’s Barkan settlement warehouse operations ²³⁴⁵. This claim is not corroborated by Delta Israel’s own official brand portfolio page, which lists its licensed/franchise brands (Delta, Fix, Panta Rei, Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Converse, Adidas, Original Penguin, Columbia, Tommy Hilfiger, Wilson, Spalding, Wolford, Polo Ralph Lauren, Florence by Mills, Calvin Klein, Disney, Ted Baker) without any mention of New Balance ⁶. It is likewise absent from Who Profits’ own Delta Galil company profile, which identifies Delta Israel’s franchise brands as “Adidas, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Victoria’s Secret” - again with no New Balance reference ⁷. AFSC Investigate’s Delta Galil Industries entry was also checked and returned no New Balance linkage ⁸. This is an unresolved discrepancy in the public record rather than a verified sourcing relationship.

A separate, uncorroborated claim states that New Balance has operated production lines inside Israel since the 1980s, producing models in the 990 series ⁴. No public evidence identified corroborating Israel-based manufacturing for New Balance; the company’s documented production footprint identified in this review is US- and UK-based rather than Israel-based.

No public evidence identified of New Balance commercial relationships with Israeli agricultural aggregators or exporters, or of any third-party or indirect sourcing arrangements involving Israeli-origin goods, reflecting New Balance’s status as a footwear and apparel manufacturer rather than a produce importer.

Product Origin, Labeling & Regulatory Compliance

No public evidence identified of NGO investigations, customs audits, or regulatory findings concerning New Balance products bearing “Produce of Israel” or settlement-origin labeling; this labeling category is not applicable to a footwear and apparel manufacturer and no such findings surfaced in the Who Profits or AFSC Investigate databases consulted for this review ⁷⁸.

No public evidence identified of a corporate labeling or country-of-origin policy specific to goods sourced from Israel or the occupied territories.

Investment, Capital & Financial Exposure

New Balance Athletics, Inc. is privately held, with Jim Davis and his family holding an estimated majority ownership stake (approximately 95%), Jim Davis serving as Chairman and Anne Davis as Vice Chairman, and no institutional or public investors on record ⁹¹⁰. The company is not SEC-registered and no 10-K, 20-F, or equivalent public financial filings were located ⁹¹⁰.

No public evidence identified of direct New Balance capital investment - factories, data centers, logistics hubs, or real estate - inside Israel or the occupied territories, and No public evidence identified of New Balance-operated R&D facilities, innovation labs, or accelerator programmes in Israel.

No public evidence identified of personal or family-office investment by Jim Davis or Anne Davis into Israeli companies, sovereign bonds, or Israel-focused investment funds; identified philanthropic disclosures (a Massachusetts General Hospital cardiovascular center and a Middlebury College gift) contain no Israel-related giving.

Operational Presence & Market Activity

New Balance-branded retail presence in Israel consists of a small number of storefronts - a factory store in Tel Aviv at 3 Shavil Hamifal St. and a brand store in Rishon Lezion at 9 Derech Eden St. - both described on New Balance’s own Israel site as operated by its licensed importer, Silon Sports Ltd., rather than by a New Balance-owned entity ¹.

No public evidence identified of employment or tax-registration figures for Silon Sports Ltd.’s Israel operation, and No public evidence identified of New Balance publicly characterizing Israel as a strategic market, consistent with its status as a private company that does not issue investor-facing market disclosures.

Regarding event sponsorship, BDS Movement documented New Balance as a named sponsor of the Jerusalem Marathon and issued a boycott call on 12 March 2014 citing the race’s route through and symbolic association with occupied East Jerusalem ¹¹¹². No public evidence identified confirming New Balance’s sponsorship status for the Jerusalem Marathon in any year after 2014; by comparison, Saucony is documented as the marathon’s official shoe sponsor for the 2024 edition and ended that sponsorship in September 2025 following boycott pressure, with neither the Middle East Eye report nor the Wikipedia summary of the event referencing any New Balance sponsorship role in 2023–2025 ¹³¹⁴. A further claim of a 2022 Tel Aviv Marathon sponsorship by New Balance appears in aggregator search summaries but no primary-source press release or news report confirming it was located, so it is treated as unverified. A 2016 Haaretz report on neo-Nazi commentary about New Balance provides background on the company’s domestic political controversies but contains no Israel-operations content ¹⁵.

Corporate Structure & Foundational Ties

New Balance was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, and acquired by Jim Davis in 1972; the company’s founding and incorporation history shows no Israel nexus ⁹¹⁰. No public evidence identified of Israel-founding, Israel-headquarters, Israeli tax-residency, or Israeli beneficial-ownership factors that would place New Balance within an Israeli-nexus ownership or domicile framework.

New Balance’s headquarters is located at 100 Guest Street, Boston, Massachusetts; no dual or legacy Israel headquarters was identified.

No public evidence identified that New Balance has acquired or holds a controlling stake in any Israeli operating company across manufacturing, consumer brands, pharmaceuticals, technology, food, or infrastructure sectors, and No public evidence identified of state or institutional linkages to Israel such as government contracts, board appointees, or critical-infrastructure designations. No public evidence identified of structural governance features, such as golden shares or charter provisions, tying New Balance to Israeli state policy.

Profit Repatriation & Economic Contribution

No public evidence identified of Israel-market revenue disclosure by New Balance, consistent with its status as a privately held company that does not publish market-segment financial data ⁹¹⁰.

New Balance’s own Israel FAQ describes its Israeli commercial counterpart, Silon Sports Ltd., as an “importer” rather than a subsidiary ¹, which is consistent with an arm’s-length importer/licensee model under which any profit generated in Israel would flow to Silon Sports Ltd. locally, with royalty or licensing payments (if any) flowing to the US parent; this is an inference from the FAQ’s description rather than a direct financial disclosure ¹.

No public evidence identified of any government or industry designation of New Balance’s Israeli licensee as a sector anchor, key employer, or notable contributor to the Israeli economy.