New Balance Footwear Gains Traction with GORE-TEX Brand Alliance

Boston-based New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. announced today a new strategic partnership with W.L. Gore & Associates, the maker of GORE-TEX® Guaranteed to Keep You Dry® fabrics. The partnership comes as New Balance launches its Outdoor initiative at the Winter Outdoor Retailer show later this month, featuring products that debut in Fall 2007. The New Balance footwear featuring the GORE-TEX® brand, will mark the first time that any GORE-TEX® products have been offered in multiple widths.

“We are very excited about our new partnership with Gore,” says Katherine Petrecca, product manager, outdoor enthusiast at New Balance. “Gore is truly the industry standard when it comes to waterproof, breathable, and durable footwear fabric. Together, New Balance and Gore will work to produce premier footwear for the serious outdoor enthusiast.”

New Balance will offer GORE-TEX® lining in five of their new outdoor performance shoes for Fall 2007. Several styles with highly breathable GORE-TEX® XCR® lining, specially designed for comfort and protection during high output activities, will also be offered. New Balance has partnered with Gore specifically in the 1110 trail runner, the 1200 hiker, the multi-sport 950 and 1091, and the 977 country walker.

“New Balance, unsurpassed in its breadth of offering in footwear sizes and widths, provides Gore access to new customers,” says Matt Schreiner, global product specialist at Gore. “The “sit and fit” nature of many of their retail doors is an ideal venue for retail staff to educate consumers about features and benefits of the new footwear while also telling the GORE-TEX® brand story.”

New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA, is a leading manufacturer of technologically innovative width-sized performance footwear and athletic apparel for women, men, and children. The range of product categories includes running, walking, training, basketball, tennis, cleated and kids. New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. employs more than 2,800 people around the globe, and in 2005 reported worldwide sales of $1.54 billion. For more information please visit http://www.newbalance.com.

Perhaps best known for its consumer products like GORE-TEX fabric and ELIXIR guitar strings, Gore is a leading manufacturer of thousands of advanced technology products for the electronics, industrial, fabrics and medical markets. The company is headquartered in Newark, Delaware, and employs approximately 7500 associates in 45 facilities throughout the world. For more information about W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. and GORE products, call 1-800-431-GORE or visit www.gore-tex.com.

GORE, GORE-TEX, and designs are trademarks of W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. ©2006 W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., 295 Blue Ball Rd., Elkton, Maryland, 800-431-GORE, gore-tex.com ###