Inside New Balance’s innovation laboratory

New Balance only gets half the credit it deserves. When people think of the 120-year-old independently owned company, with its Boston roots, they think of quality and heritage. They’re less likely to think of cutting-edge athletic innovation.

That’s what Kevin FitzPatrick, global vice president of running, told Tempo Journal when we were invited to the company’s innovation summit in Boston during marathon week last month. He says it’s both understandable and something he thinks will change over the next few years. “We’ve been a running brand for 100 years and so we have such rich history and credibility and authenticity in the category,” FitzPatrick says. “But innovation, and certainly our sports science capabilities, is a story that really hasn’t been told by New Balance ... So when you talk to the consumer about who New Balance is in running, they say ‘trusted’ and ‘great fit and high-quality’. Now, we’re starting to shift the consumer’s perception to start to say ‘really innovative, market-leading new ideas’.

The company’s Sports Research Lab is driving this shift. Launched three years ago, the lab, is part of New Balance’s state-of-the-art global headquarters, facilities and indoor track on the outskirts of Boston.

“That’s really what the Sports Research Lab was built to be able to do, to leverage our athletes to drive insights and totally new products that nobody else is thinking about or able to get from other brands,” FitzPatrick says.

While New Balance had testing facilities at its Lawrence factory (30 miles or 50km from downtown Boston) prior to the current lab, the new facilities represent a significant upgrade. The enhanced laboratory enables deeper insights, faster innovation and better athlete engagement. As FitzPatrick explains, “We had amazing sports scientists all along, and great engineers. This new lab has just greatly expanded our capabilities.”

The lab serves as a dynamic environment where athletes across all sports categories come to test products and provide feedback. On any given day, you might find tennis star Coco Gauff testing her latest footwear, baseball phenomenon Shohei Ohtani trying out cleats, or track athletes like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone working with the team on track spikes.

The SuperComp Elite v5, set to launch in August, represents the first top-tier running shoe fully designed within the new Sports Research Lab. Chris Morfesi, senior global product manager for performance running, notes how the shoe builds upon the success of its predecessor with significant weight reduction and improved propulsion. The v5 is 28 grams lighter than the v4 and features a more aggressive 8mm heel-to-toe drop, enhanced outsole materials and a refined upper design.

As we detailed in our previous article on the SC Elite v5, Olympic triathlon gold medallist Alex Yee played an integral role in the shoe’s development, providing specific feedback that led to a 40% increase in forefoot stiffness for greater responsiveness. Yee deployed the shoe in his marathon debut in London a week after the Boston innovation summit.

“Alex is so fun to work with because he’s a shoe geek and he loves working and tinkering,” Morfesi says. “Having this facility here in Boston—where he can quickly fly in, hop on the treadmill, do some testing, and then get out of here—has been a game changer for us.” The lab isn’t just advancing footwear innovation. FitzPatrick emphasises its role in comprehensive product development: “When we talk about athletes, we’re not just talking about somebody that runs a professional marathon. We’re also talking about somebody that’s running their first 5K or just going out for the first jog, and we bring a lot of them into the lab as well.”

Continuing the theme of a broad-based approach to innovation at the Sports Research Lab, Jeffrey Garabedian, in charge of apparel for global running, shared some new innovations that haven’t even hit the market yet. The first of these is a breathable “Melt Away” fabric technology. “What this fabric is, it’s unique, it’s made of soluble and insoluble yarns,” Garabedian explains. “When heat is applied to it, the part that is soluble dissolves. It leaves these holes there without ever having to puncture the yarn and compromise the durability.” The result is an incredibly light, breathable fabric that maintains structural integrity. It weighs just 98 grams per square metre—a typical synthetic sportswear fabric might weigh 150–300g/m2—and is made from a combination of 74% recycled nylon and 26% Lycra.

Looking to the future, Garabedian emphasises New Balance’s ambitious innovation roadmap. He revealed an as yet unnamed fabric technology, planned for release in 2026, that responds when the wearer heats up. “It’s an innovative Swiss technology that activates when you’re hot and sweaty and cools you down right when you need it to,” he explains. Without getting too technical, it relies on an unusually shaped yarn that allows for greater breathability by letting moisture move through it quicker.

“It’s a very interesting technology that allows you to go into a hot condition, stay drier and enjoy better air flow. And then, as you move out of that condition and your body regulates, the yarns just sort of relax a little bit. Garabedian says.

Women’s performance apparel, particularly sports bras, is another area receiving a good deal of attention in New Balance’s quest for innovation. Mollie Barr Hormann, strategic business unit manager for sportswear product creation, explains the significance of a good sports bra: “It’s one of the first pieces of clothing you put on. It has that power to give you full confidence and make you feel unstoppable.”

The company recently overhauled its sports bra approach by launching six core products spanning three activity levels: run (full support), train (medium support) and yoga (light support). Each category offers a premium product and a more affordable “essential” bra. What sets these products apart is their focus on fit and inclusivity, with sizing extending to F and G cups.

“Most brands do not have F and G cup,” Hormann notes. “One of the top reasons that women fall out of sport is not having the right sports bra. What we are saying to those athletes is you can’t run, you can’t participate ... Those people need the opportunity to enter sport.”

The premium RC running bra, which also benefited from Sports Research Lab development, represents New Balance’s innovation “playground”. Made from Sleek NB four-way stretch fabric, it features fully bonded construction with minimal seams to prevent chafing, detailed channelling to draw away moisture and adjustable clasps for personalised fit. “It’s the construction, the finishings, the trims that we put into it,” Hormann says of the team’s pursuit of a perfect fit for female athletes.

According to FitzPatrick, “Similarly to the SC Elite v5, the RC bra is a product where our facility and our capabilities allowed us to leverage insights and make it the best running bra in the marketplace when it launches.” Supporting these products is a “fit promise”—if the bra doesn’t fit or meet expectations, New Balance will take it back and help find the right solution. Proving that there’s more to R&D than laboratory experiments, this customer feedback loop is crucial to the ongoing development process.

“It’s going to take communication with the consumer, and we want to make sure we’re opening the door for that communication. So if you hate our bra, tell us why. Help us understand what you’re not getting from it,” Hormann says.

Just as ambitious is New Balance’s early work for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Garabedian says they’re already working on a full “system of dress” that will allow New Balance’s runners and other athletes to enhance their performances

FitzPatrick confirms this forward-thinking approach: “We’ve got teams in innovation that are thinking out about five, ten years in the future, about wild things and just giving them the room to tinker, to think crazy, to test things that people typically would say are not possible.” It’s part of a “fail fast” mindset that is helping to transform New Balance. “The insights that we have and some of the early prototypes that we’re looking at is, to me, I’m like, ‘Wow, I had no idea we were going to get to that level that quickly,’” FitzPatrick says.

While elite performance remains important, all four interviewees highlighted the significance of creating new experiences for everyday runners. For his part, FitzPatrick sees significant opportunity in focusing on both functional and emotional benefits. “Most consumers we talk to, they’re like, ‘Running sucks, it’s hard, I want to have more fun, I want to enjoy it.’ I’ve got our innovation team focused as much on the emotional benefits of great apparel and great footwear as the functional benefits.”

This approach aligns with New Balance’s larger mission. “When you think about that young consumer, that athlete who’s in their teenage years or early 20s, our brand to them is a lifestyle and a fashion brand,” FitzPatrick observes. “Our brand is incredibly strong, the strongest we’ve ever been—we’re growing faster than we’ve ever grown.” Aesthetics play a crucial role in this growth—and this can never be separated from the development of performance products. “You can’t underestimate the aesthetic because the consumer’s process when they’re thinking about a purchase is brand first: ‘Do I know the brand? Do I trust the brand?’ Then it’s aesthetic: ‘What looks good?’ And then it’s, ‘Okay, does it fit? Does it work for me?’”

This holistic understanding of the consumer experience informs New Balance’s innovation strategy. “We always say that a brand that looks and feels like itself is a strong, authentic brand,” FitzPatrick says. “Throughout the entire creation process, what you’re seeing is a much stronger connection across our categories, and across footwear and apparel.”

Ultimately, New Balance’s innovation goals extend beyond business metrics to community impact. “Of course, my role is to build a business and to make sure that we’re driving revenue and sales of running footwear,” FitzPatrick concludes. “But I also believe that our responsibility is to build the running community and build the running culture and make it stronger, make it more enduring, make it more durable. So that for generations to come, it’s a place that people feel they belong, feel they want to be a part of, and we just get more and more people out there running—and that’s ultimately our goal.”