No New Balance in 2018?

jwhitty5

Disney Historian in the making
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
My family has bought over 12 different pairs of Run Disney New Balances over the years from running W&D and Princess races. We normally try to get a few pairs at the expo, but then found out last year that generally after W&D the rest of that years stock gets sent to NB outlet stores and sold at discount. When my wife called NB outlet last week she was told that NB would no longer be making the RunDisney shoes as if their contract was expiring.

Has anyone else heard any rumors? If you go to the 2018 Marathon RunDisney website there is pretty much no mention of NB as a sponsor or anything. We are currently not at W&D race weekend because we just welcomed our first child into the world, but are hoping that people there can find out the inside scoop.
 
This has been a rumor for a while. It’s been mentioned during wine and dine weekend already as well. New balance is selling buy one get one half off. It’s expected a new shoe brand will come in.
 
I imagine Disney put the contract out to bid and someone bid higher than NB. I don't know why they have such a limited release and hopefully the next manufacturer produces enough to sell through the same retail channel as all the non-Disney versions of whatever shoe it is. It should be as easy to get any Disney NB shoe as the non-Disney equivalent. There is no advantage at all to keeping these rare other than the resale market that doens't pay Disney or the manufacturer anything anyway.
 
I imagine Disney put the contract out to bid and someone bid higher than NB. I don't know why they have such a limited release and hopefully the next manufacturer produces enough to sell through the same retail channel as all the non-Disney versions of whatever shoe it is. It should be as easy to get any Disney NB shoe as the non-Disney equivalent. There is no advantage at all to keeping these rare other than the resale market that doens't pay Disney or the manufacturer anything anyway.

‘Zactly. I just posted a similar rationale on the Marathon thread.
 


Nike would be the best. Even thought they arent known as a great running shoe they would have the best designs.
 
I was at the New Balance outlets today and one clerk told me the same thing, that Disney did not renew the contract with New Balance :headache: Both outlets here (1 in New Hampshire and 1 in Massachusetts) only have the women's styles, no men's :confused3 The stores were very surprised that Disney did not mark the 2017 styles down like in previous years :eek: They are marked $99.99 but the outlets are having a special of buy 2, get one free so that brings the price down to $67 if you get 3 :thumbsup2 Last year they were $60 with 20% New Balance promo so that made them $48 ::yes::
 


I was at the New Balance outlets today and one clerk told me the same thing, that Disney did not renew the contract with New Balance :headache: Both outlets here (1 in New Hampshire and 1 in Massachusetts) only have the women's styles, no men's :confused3 The stores were very surprised that Disney did not mark the 2017 styles down like in previous years :eek: They are marked $99.99 but the outlets are having a special of buy 2, get one free so that brings the price down to $67 if you get 3 :thumbsup2 Last year they were $60 with 20% New Balance promo so that made them $48 ::yes::

Wow. I'm in MA visiting. May have to check this out.
 
Oh, good to know. I would hope it's a shoe brand that focuses more on running shoes specifically. Brooks, Saucony, etc. I don't think that's very likely though.
 
New Balance sponsored The New York marathonenthis weekend and they had a great line of stuff. Most of the race sponsors do both the shoe and the clothing line. I wonder if Disney separating the shoe and apparel sponsorship makes it less appealing. If they want to keep that separation the rumors of Sketchers being the new shoe partner make sense.
 
Hope it's Nike. All of it. Even Champion.. that's gotta go!

Endorse on both, the apparel could be improved immensely. I like my UA running shoes, but I doubt they'd go after this market. Will be interesting, Brooks and Champion are both Berkshire companies, maybe something there. They would sell a ton of Ghost or Glyceron DIS versions for sure.
 
I also heard the rumor of Skechers being the new shoe brand,I honestly can see this happening.The positives of Skechers are that most of the shoes are pretty comfy and they made some nicely cushioned shoes that I usually run in,I even ran one Disney full in a pair of Skechers go run ultras,I've been in Hokas for several years now.One issue about Skechers however is that they wear out fast,if they are the brand I would only consider buying them at 20%-25% off the price the New Balances were going for,that could change based on how cool they look!!
 
Last edited:
New Balance has a couple of Disney collections on their site, but

1.) They are Disney-branded, not runDisney-branded, and
2.) they are way more subtle than the runDisney collections...like, for the mostpart I don't really get how they are actually Disney-inspired myself.

http://www.newbalance.com/beautyandthebeast/
http://www.newbalance.com/cars-collection/?searchSource=cars
Yeah I saw the Cars ones when I was in Disney this summer and was not fond of them at all.
 
If runDisney partnered with Brooks and created Disney-themed Brooks Ghosts, I would just hand them ALL my money.

(Speaking as a former die-hard New Balance girl who recently switched to Brooks Ghosts and loves them!)

I'm not die hard brooks girl but I'd be more apat to wear those over NB which I loved prerunning years
 
Nike would be the best. Even thought they arent known as a great running shoe they would have the best designs.

Nike would properly fit even fewer people than NB.

Oh, good to know. I would hope it's a shoe brand that focuses more on running shoes specifically. Brooks, Saucony, etc. I don't think that's very likely though.

I agree with your hope.
 
Nike would be the best. Even thought they arent known as a great running shoe they would have the best designs.

Personally I run in Vomero's and Pegasus and I am really interested in the Zoom Flies so I think Nike can make some really good running shoes. That being said Nike is the main sponsor of the Chicago marathon. I think what there offerings weren't as good as either what Asics did when they sponsored the NY marathon or what New Balance did when they sponsored the NY Marathon. I thought Nike was maybe a tad bit better than what Brooks did for their sponsorship of the Marine Corps Marathon, but there were pros and cons to both.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top