New Balance is gets in the fashion game

For fall ’08, the Boston-based athletic company will launch a new line of casual footwear for women under the NB Inside label.

And that line, it seems, will be a key part of New Balance’s strategy for reaching $3 billion in sales by 2012. “Our lifestyle business will play a key role in helping us to reach our $3 billion goal,” said Rob DeMartini, CEO of New Balance. “While New Balance’s heritage is in performance, our brand’s authenticity and strength offers us a unique opportunity to capture a larger piece of the lifestyle category.”

Joe Casagrande, strategic business unit manager for the division that oversees NB Inside, estimated that half the women who buy the collection will be new customers for the company. He also said the new collection, which will eventually include men’s, could be a big part of the company’s casual business. “Over time, we hope this collection will make up roughly 25 percent of our global lifestyle footwear sales,” he said.

Initially, NB Inside will include two styles that put New Balance’s sneaker technology — including the company’s Abzorb cushioning foam in the midsole and a layer of memory foam — into a fashion sneaker silhouette. The styles will retail for $125.

“This is a completely new style, not an NB retro running style or a fashion-oriented color-up or material spun on a more technical silhouette,” said Casagrande. “We recognize that the lines between performance, fashion and lifestyle have become very blurred and gray. But that is the gray zone we love to play in.”

For the launch, New Balance will target a handful of department stores, fashion-forward family footwear stores and independent accounts in the U.S., as well as select markets in Europe and Asia.

To develop the collection, the company turned to design firm DDC Labs, which worked on New Balance’s PF Flyers account. According to Savania Davies-Keiller, an owner of DDC Labs, the firm worked for more than a year to create a shoe that was both stylish and comfortable. “As women, I think we want something a little sleeker and more feminine, something we can wear not only for working out but for the everyday,” Davies-Keiller said.

DeMartini added: “We believe the versatility, design and technology of NB Inside will appeal to a younger female consumer who is interested in both style and performance. No other brand is fusing technology and fashion in the marketplace today.”