New Balance starts mask production to provide Covid-19 relief

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Apr 3, 2020

Boston, Massachusetts-based athletic retailer New Balance has become the latest retailer to start producing face masks, in order to provide relief during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

"The global Covid-19 health crisis has called on individuals and organizations to bring their expertise and resources to solve new and extraordinary challenges," the company said in a statement on its website. 

"New Balance has engaged a portion of its skilled and innovative U.S. manufacturing workforce to develop face masks to address the significant demand for these supplies.

"We are producing prototypes for face masks in our Lawrence, [Massachusetts] manufacturing facility and hope to scale production using our other New England factories soon. We are coordinating our efforts with our government officials and local medical institutions as well other U.S. consortiums and testing facilities," New Balance added.

Last week, the company announced that it is providing further relief during the outbreak by committing $2 million in nonprofit grants to support local, regional and global communities and charities through the New Balance Foundation. 

New Balance joins companies and brands like Prada, Wolford, H&M and Kering in producing masks to help provide relief during the Covid-19 pandemic, while companies like LVMH, Zara owner Inditex and Revolve have worked to source and deliver masks to healthcare workers in need.