New Balance Plans to Dedicate a Factory to Mass Customization

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Video via BBJ

Furthering its Made in the USA manifesto, New Balance is expanding upon its customization program in the New York concept store. CEO Robert DeMartini tells Boston Business Journal reporter Galen Moore that the company plans to convert an entire factory to produce exclusively "on-demand bespoke custom product." The BBJ article notes that already part of a Norridgewock, Maine factory is used for customization. The market seems to be trending in the direction of further customized merchandise (they don't call it "me-commerce" for nothing), and DeMartini asserts that doing so domestically has advantages in speed and procedure. Will a Boston company take the lead on a US-made mass customized market?
· Jim Davis, Carol Meyrowitz on the Footwear News Power 100 [Racked Boston]
· New Balance Adds Made In The USA Gear To Its Roster [Racked Boston]
· New Balance CEO: We'll dedicate a factory to mass customization [BBJ]