#313: Joe Preston, President & CEO, New Balance – Focus on what you can control

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Friends, hello and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead with David Novak.

Today, we've got Joe Preston on the show. He's the president and CEO of New Balance, and under his tenure, he's helped transform New Balance into the brand once known for dad sneaks and to one of the hottest premium brands in the world, with ambassadors like Coco Goff, Josh Allen and Shohei Otani. Joe's done it all without abandoning the independence, craftsmanship and culture that's made New Balance distinctive from the very beginning. Enjoy this conversation with David and Joe, and I will see you at the end of the episode for the debrief.

David Novak (0:42)

You know, after more than 30 years in the company, I got to know how many pairs of New Balance shoes do you have in your closet?

Joe Preston (0:49)

Well, I don't know if I can say that without a lawyer present, particularly since I just moved into a new house with my wife the other day. And editing as we moved stuff into the new house was part of it. But dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens, I would say, is accurate.

David Novak (1:07)

OK, well, now I'm going to ask you an even tougher question. This is got this may be in the thousands, but how many pairs of New Balance shoes do you think you've tried on?

Joe Preston (1:16)

Thousands. Yeah, I don't even know how to pick a number there, but it is definitely at least four digits, maybe five.

David Novak (1:26)

Well, my running shoe, athletic shoe, that I use right now is this New Balance 990, you know, fuel cell, you know. Tell me the leadership story behind this shoe.

Joe Preston (1:39)

You know, it was the first hundred dollar shoe in the industry. And Jim Davis bought the company in 1972 Three years later, he had the number one selling shoe in the industry, rated by Runners World, called the 320 That was like 1995, 1996

And in 1982, decided to launch the industry's first hundred dollar running shoe. And it was a product that would be made for roads and for off-road. And it was, you know, built that way. And the cult following that it garnered was just really, really strong. And then once people got into it, they just stayed with it. So it was a bunch of young college runners in the beginning. And many of them just wore that shoe for the rest of their lives, still wearing it today.

And, you know, it went from this runner's shoe to somewhat of a doctor's and lawyer's shoe that we used to call it. And, but every one of them was-

David Novak (2:37)

Why is that Joe? Why did you call it the doctor's and lawyer's shoe?

Joe Preston (2:38)

Well, because, you know, we used to, we used to have a tagline called the intelligent choice. And it was New Balance because, you know, we, we thought that the manufacturing processes we used and everything about it made it just a more logical choice. But it was also available in widths. And we were the only company available in widths. So today, even today, that shoe comes in a narrow to extra, extra wide. It goes up to like size 18

You know, the number of skews that we, that we produce to support that is something that's been, and just from the beginning, and I can't show you, but I'm wearing the update to that shoe that comes out next year that I am really excited about. And that's hard to do when you've got a model that will be 45 years old when we introduce this 990 update in 2027

David Novak (3:31)

You just mentioned that you basically describe yourself as the more intelligent approach to building shoes here. Okay, you know, how do you, what do you mean by that? How do you have a more intelligent shoe?

Joe Preston (3:46)

Well, I mean, that was a tagline from the 80s. So I don't want to...

SPEAKER_1 (3:51)

So it stuck around for a while because I just got this t-shirt. Yeah, I love it.

Joe Preston (3:54)

I think, I think actually what it played to was that we didn't take ourselves that seriously. If you looked at some of our creative early on, there was another one that says runners aren't normal.

You know, there was another one where there was Ma and Dad New Bounds, who is a picture of an elderly lady and an elderly man. And, you know, when the going gets tough, the tough get going as they're all in their New Balance garb. So it was ads like that, that again, were light. They were, again, making sure you're not taking yourself too seriously. And that's where it came from.