Source: New Balance Opens Doors to a World-Class Multi-Sport Facility, The TRACK at New Balance
In the U.S. niche sports aren’t given the same level of importance as they are around the globe. The Diamond League in track and field allows track athletes to make a living, but the majority of the events are outside of the U.S. The only track that gets to host major events is the University of Oregon Track, Hayward Field, which of course is the home of Nike essentially. While many see track and field as an Olympic sport, what consumers don’t realize is how influential the sport is. Most new developments in sneakers happens in the performance running space. Sneakers are then modified for various sports after the research and development verifies how and why athletes perform better in a specific test. When you visit Nike’s Campus it’s an amazing compilation of architecture and training spaces. From the soccer field behind the Mia Hamm building (check me on that) to the vast array of places to train for athletes, Nike’s campus holds secrets some can’t even get access to, like the black building set off away from everything else. When I toured the campus, I was told about how Tiger Woods hit a ball clear across the soccer field onto a small golf course on the other side of campus. The stories were great but understanding that Nike equals sport was the point.
The TRACK at New Balance offers the optimal training and performance venue for athletes of all abilities while driving New Balance innovation and technology insights through our new state-of-the-art New Balance Sports Research Lab.
In the fall and spring young athletes arrive at Birmingham Crossplex an indoor track facility in Alabama. This is the same location superstars of track and field land for events. It’s the home of UAB for indoor track meets. That place gives you chills when the guns go off and the athletes are in competition. What it does for Birmingham whenever there is an indoor event is a financial boon. Nike has long been the home of track and field and Oregon will retain that importance, but when you consider Trayvon Brommell and Sydney McLaughlin now have a comparable home which can be utilized in the fall and winter, a topic I discussed years ago becomes more attainable:
The NCAA Should Be Disrupted and Nike’s PK80 Could Carry Some of the Burden – ARCH-USA
In the link above, I explained that Nike had an opportunity to privatize collegiate sports based on sponsorships. While this is unlikely to happen, it does bring to the table this statement I made in another post: This is a transformative venture by New Balance, and it creates a very interesting dynamic where I can see track athletes having bigger events in the U.S. instead of having to travel abroad to make a living. Not to mention that brand (New Balance’s) YouTube and IG videos should have live sports as media and since the facility will be able to host music events as well, concerts will be sponsored by brands connecting live music and sports in what is a symbiotic relationship. At the opening of The Track, New Balance brought in actresses and music industry sponsored talent. They put on display this addition to an area of Boston that is becoming a destination for sport. New Balance began building the The Track in 2019. They have been signing athletes and entertainers. They had already begun a move into sneaker closets with designs like the 247 and their Test Run Project, long before they entered the world of hype by working with Salehe and bringing the head of Aime Leon Dore aboard. While sneaker culture isn’t paying attention to this opening, those who understand what Nike’s dominance has always been built on, realize that New Balance just became the only brand capable of really competing with Nike where it really matters.