The American sneaker manufacturer New Balance has gotten itself into a thorny situation.In a turn of events the company clearly did not anticipate, a statement it made in support of US president-elect Donald Trump’s policy on an international trade agreement has snowballed into a neo-Nazi blogger declaring New Balance the “official shoes of white people.”
...New Balance certainly isn't responsible for what people who like their shoes claim.
On the other foot...
https://twitter.com/nancylevine/status/1568976844443222021
It’s one thing if some noxious blogger endorses your product. Nothing you can do about that.
But if your founder and CEO donates to noxious people, you’ve got no complaint if people hold that against your company and your products. After all, why should the contribute to the wealth that he uses against their intetests?
i try really hard to distinguish between the things a company does with its money vs what high-profile employees of a company do with their own money. but sometimes they make it hard for me.
It’s one thing to distinguish between high profile employees and the company they work for. But I would contend that it’s a different situation when the “high profile employee” is the founder and a major stockholder.
yep. that’s the issue i have with Chik-fil-A. i love it. and the employees aren’t to blame for what the owner does. but, that owner is still a problem.
in this case, it’s not really a problem for me at all, since i’m a Brooks guy. not buying NB is something i can happily do forever without even being tempted.