How A Bold Move Rebuilt New Balance’s Brand

What does it take to turn “dad shoes” into a status signal? We dig into the bold move that helped New Balance shake off 15 years of decline: a radical flip from discount-driven ads to a brand-first strategy anchored in credible influencers and high-visibility partnerships. The twist is the timeline—18 months of flat or negative signals before month 19 broke the trend and momentum took off.

We pull apart why this worked, starting with the funnel. Discounts harvest demand at the bottom; brand and culture manufacture demand at the top. Shifting spend upstream is risky because you’re not just optimizing conversions—you’re changing beliefs. That means betting on consistency, not quick hits. We share how endorsements from figures like Kawhi Leonard and Jack Harlow shaped social proof, why creator-market fit matters more than follower counts, and how nostalgia can be reframed as style when the right people wear the product in the right contexts.

Along the way, we talk about patience as a competitive advantage. Most teams pivot too soon, trading long-term compound returns for short-term comfort. We outline how to set expectations for a delayed payoff, which leading indicators to track before revenue moves (share of voice, search interest, sentiment, community adoption), and how a single viral post can act as an accelerant when the groundwork is in place. There’s frank talk about the cost of partnerships, why some big-show ads won’t pay back on a simple ROAS model, and how to build a portfolio where performance spend keeps the lights on while brand spend builds tomorrow’s demand.

If you’re wrestling with the brand vs performance question, this conversation offers a clear playbook, practical metrics, and a reminder that meaning creates margin. If the show helped you think differently, follow, rate, and share it with a friend who’s scaling—then tell us: would you wait 18 months for the bet to pay off?

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Transcript

New Balance’s Image Comeback

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So I saw this video from Alex Ramosi, which we both know, big marketing guru dude on um and sales guy on um social media, and he was talking about how New Balance, how they've kind of brought their image back to life, which I've noticed because I see them everywhere now. Yeah, they're everywhere. It's crazy. He talks about how the CMO transformed their business, their marketing strategy to kind of bring the brand back.

The Budget Flip: Brand vs Sales

The 18-Month Lag And Inflection

SPEAKER_01 0:26

So let's see this. The CMO of New Balance got fired because they had 15 years of decline. So the new guy came in, and what he did was they had 70% of their advertising budget going towards discounts and deals and getting people to directly buy shoes. And then 30% was going towards influencers, sponsorships, endorses, cool factor. And so what he did was he flipped it and he made it 70% influencers and sponsorships and cool factor. And then 30% was hey, come buy the shoes. And so over the next 18 months, they just kept losing more money. And then on month 19, it just shot up like a gun. And they're having a complete rebirth right now. They're crushing it. Crushing it. Yeah. It used to be dashoes, but branding happens at a delay. He changed the behavior and it took 18 months. And so you want to dig the well before you're thirsty. Dig the well before you're thirsty. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Yeah, it's just so like on when it when they say at 19 months it skyrocketed. Do you think it was a delay? Or do you think they just found the right person to market it? Like if it was an influencer-based strategy, do you think it was just like they found the right influencer and it just took off? Or maybe what do you think there?

Can One Influencer Tip The Curve

SPEAKER_00 1:32

I think uh when he says took off like a gun, I'm sure it's not like from zero sales to like a ton. I'm sure it's just you start to see the trend reverse, right? Gotcha. Um, that being said, too, I think there is like we've had I've worked with clients where a viral video of an influencer on TikTok took a video of them at a trade show and they had the biggest month they had or ever for like three months in a row off of one TikTok video. Wow. Just absolutely scarce. So it can do that, but I think they're well, I can't.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

I'm sure there's strategies the results of it. I mean, I've seen new balance shoes, especially on like younger kids and stuff. Yeah. See everywhere, which is crazy because it's like those are the shoes like my dad and my like great uncle used to wear and talk about.

From Dad Shoes To Youth Culture

Gutsy Patience And Strategic Risk

SPEAKER_00 2:18

They were uh grass stained from cutting the grass. Yeah, because they're all white. Yeah, they're always white. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's I think it's interesting to flip those, right? Like, I think he like he says, he talks about like the cool factor, they weren't cool. Like even when we were little, they weren't cool. Um, now I think there's uh several things. They obviously investing 70% of their marketing budget from like sales and ads of like all the partnerships stuff, discounts to partnerships and influencer stuff. That's good you're gonna make it. It's really gutsy, but you are it makes sense. You're you're trying to change your image. And when you've had the old guy image for ever, like 30 years, you know what I mean? Like it takes a long time to change it, and I think a lot of people don't have the guts or fortitude to hold out 18 months to see if a marketing strategy works. Most people are not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Most people are like two months, and if they're not seeing results, they're shifting strategies, which yeah, which is sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get someone to be like, nope, trust me, it just be gotta stay.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

We gotta stay with it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

No, it's I mean it's really sad when you think about it. You you think like in this case, this strategy took 18, 19 months, and you look at all these other businesses that are making knee-jerk reactions to strategies that haven't succeeded within a couple months, like what opportunities are they truly missing out on over the long term? Yeah, because if they'd stuck with it, it could have panned out. And I mean, and it may not have. Like, there's I'm not saying all strategies are gonna work, right? Right, but to have that kind of patience, like hats off to them because yeah, that is that's not easy to do for anybody.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

And I and I get it, I get where these companies are coming from, but it's extremely gutsy too for a new CMO to be like, hey, we're gonna completely flip-flop this. Yeah, and I know this is what you guys have been doing, but I think it also comes in with like, hey, for the last 15 years, if you have been losing money 15 years, like you guys aren't growing and you're being stagnant, we have to change, we have to make a dramatic change. So let's do it.

Upper Funnel Shift And Delayed Payoff

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Well, and and think too, like so. We're we're we look at businesses' growth by like a funnel strategy, right? Like the the discount strategy of like advertising putting up most of your advertising spend or marketing spend towards hey, get discounts, things like that. You're targeting the lower funnel of people. When you're going social media, you're going upper funnel. Yeah, yeah. And to be able to shift your spend, like to be able to do total flip-flop on spend to go from lower funnel to upper funnel, like that is so gutsy.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yeah, and it's so hard to do for those. Like he said too, it's gonna be very delayed because it's like now you're going from those people ready to buy to those people that maybe even didn't know who you were or didn't think you were cool, and now you're trying to change their perspective. Like changing someone's perspective takes forever, typically, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Like I mean, most people like they have to interact with your brand at least like what seven times before they consider purchasing. Yeah, right. But to take a brand that's not cool to convince them that it is cool, like I can't even imagine how many interactions that would take to be able to shift someone's perspective like that.

The Cost Of Partnerships And ROI Delay

SPEAKER_00 5:34

I mean, you look at the people that at least they showed it in the video wearing new balance stuff. It was Kawhi Leonard, who's an NBA player. Actually, not the most likable either, but he's a big NBA player. And then you have Jack Harlow, who's one of the biggest music artists in the world. It's like, okay, so you're you're you are picking valuable influencers in the space that of kids that like shoes, like kids that love basketball. How much do you think they'd pay to get those guys to do that? That was the other thing. It's like that's why they were probably losing money. Like why it was losing money for so long, and then it flipped. It's like it pay it pays to get this the partnerships for that. Like you have to pay a ton of money, and you hope it pays out at the end. I know that there's a lot of like pod huge podcasts. I guarantee you a lot of the even the really big podcasts, you have people do advertising on these podcasts, they get huge number of like views or whatever on the listens. But I guarantee you a lot of them don't actually pay off, especially like some of those are crazy. I guarantee you, Joe Rogan's podcast, you you have to pay lots and lots of money. It's the biggest show in the entire world, whether it's TV or whatever, it's the biggest show. Yeah, so it's like you're paying an insane amount of money. Um to see if it's gonna pay off and you have to wait 18 months to do it.

Style, Nostalgia, And Social Proof

SPEAKER_02 6:51

That's most companies would never do that, and so which which is why I admire this company a lot. Like, and even though they've shifted like their strategy, like and and showed that they're cool now, I still can't buy them. Really?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

See, I kind of I want to buy them. I'm a dad, I have three kids, dude. I'm in the phase of life. Doesn't matter, and now now if I wear them, not only is it might be ironic because I'm not young enough to wear them because they flip-flop.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

You do realize as soon as you put them on, like you're gonna start getting more gray hair. Like that's where it's gonna happen. Yeah, but I already have some. It's gonna accelerate.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

I'm still way behind you, so that's that's all that matters. My wife, my wife, I I don't know. We'll see what she says. My wife might like me if I were she might be like, uh well, and and he who knows, like, I don't know if they change the style a lot either, like, or if it's just the marketing movement.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

I was I was just looking at some of their shoes, and like some of them look a little bit more stylish, but most of them still look very they still look pretty the big N on the side of the shoe, and which I it's like I actually kind of like.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

I think it's nostalgic for me. It's just like it's my dad used to wear shoes like that.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

It was either the Costco shoe, which was like this big white Kirkland shoe, or it was like that kind of stuff, and it's like I don't know, I kind of think it's cool now, you know, it's it's also subjective at the end of the day, and and I think this is a great example of just the whole you know, take take the funnel out aside and just talk about the social proof, you know, like whatever what makes anything cool is the social proof aspect of it. And so, like, if you can show that people like your product, people are gonna buy.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

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SPEAKER_02 8:43

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