New Balance Announces Sponsorship of MIT Media Lab
Originally appearing on WickedLocal.com
Athletic gear leader New Balance announced a multi-year sponsorship of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, an antidisciplinary research lab focused on creating new disciplines and breakthrough technologies.
“Our relationship with the MIT Media Lab gives our engineers, designers and product managers the opportunity to collaborate with professors and students from one of the world’s most innovative graduate research programs,“ said Katherine Petrecca, New Balance Manager of Studio Innovation, in the July 26 release. “This relationship is an important tool in fueling our long-term innovation agenda at New Balance.”
“Building relationships with innovative member companies like New Balance helps the Media Lab continue to push the boundaries of traditional academic frameworks, and think about science and technology in different ways,“ said Joi Ito, MIT Media Lab Director. “We’re looking forward to the input that New Balance will bring with their expertise in areas such as athletic footwear and apparel.”
For more than 100 years New Balance has been driving to be at the forefront of technology and performance innovation. In March 2013 New Balance announced the creation of data-customized 3D printed, spike plates for their elite track athletes. New Balance will look to the MIT Media Lab and its unique culture to spark creative advances within the brand’s Studio Innovation Center located in Lawrence, MA.
The Media Lab was founded in 1985 by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte and Jerome Wiesner, former advisor to President John F. Kennedy and former President of MIT, to focus on the study, invention, and creative use of digital technologies to enhance the ways that people think, express and communicate ideas and explore new scientific frontiers. Other notable sponsors of the MIT Media Lab include Hasbro, LG, Samsung, and ESPN.
About New Balance
New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA has the following mission: Demonstrating responsible leadership, we build global brands that athletes are proud to wear, associates are proud to create and communities are proud to host. New Balance is currently the only athletic shoe company that manufactures footwear in the U.S. with 25% of our U.S. footwear shipments produced at five New England facilities. The company also operates a manufacturing facility in Flimby, U.K. New Balance employs more than 4000 associates around the globe, and in 2010 reported worldwide sales of $1.78 billion. To learn more about how New Balance Makes Excellent Happen, please visit www.newbalance.com.
