Key Takeaways
- Accelerated Revenue Growth: Contributed to New Balance’s leap from $5B to $6.5B in under two years after becoming a customer in Spring 2022
- Fast Time-to-Value: Pilot launched and delivering results within 3–4 months
- Enhanced Team Efficiency: Reduced manual work and improved collaboration through real-time data
- Scalable Platform: Easy user onboarding and rapid expansion to new use cases
The Challenge: Siloed Teams, Lack of Visuals & Data Slowing Innovation
As a global leader in sports footwear and apparel, New Balance set out to hit $10B in annual revenue within the next decade. But to reach that target, the company needed to streamline how it adopted and assorted products across regions. Key roadblocks included:
- Disconnected Forecasts: Limited visibility into global demand, making it tough to meet factory minimum order quantities (MOQs) and optimize each regional assortment.
- Manual, Time-Consuming Processes: Merchants spent too much time tracking down data across Excel files instead of focusing on strategic decisions.
- Inefficient Collaboration: Without real-time collaboration tools, teams struggled to quickly align on key add/drop/keep decisions.
- Lack of Visibility: No visibility into real-time, fully attributed product data and product visuals hampered decision-making.
“What got us to $4B was not what was going to get us to $10B.”
— Mary Grim, Head of Global Digital Operations at New Balance
Solution: Real-Time Data, Visibility & Collaboration with VibeIQ
New Balance chose VibeIQ to jump-start transformation. Starting with the Adopt & Assort use case and later expanding into Concept & Plan, they quickly saw:
- Rapid Pilot to Full Rollout
- 3–4 Month Pilot: Quickly validated the platform’s impact and feasibility.
- Simple Onboarding: With just 1–1.5 hours of training, teams could fully use VibeIQ, drastically reducing time-to-value.
- Unified Product Data & Early Forecasting
- Real-Time Assortment Visibility: Merchants instantly saw which products regions planned to adopt, enabling faster add/drop/keep decisions.
- MOQ Alignment: Accurate forecasts allowed them to meet or renegotiate factory minimums sooner, preventing costly over- or under-orders.
- Concept & Plan
- 16 Weeks Earlier Access: Fully attributed product data and visuals were available 4 months sooner, letting teams refine concepts ahead of key decision gates – improving adoption rate and sell-through.
- Streamlined Collaboration: Data-driven product definitions eliminated confusion, ensuring cross-functional teams worked from the same source of truth.
“The notion of visualizing data and making decisions in real time was a gap we filled right away.”
— Mary Grim, Head of Global Digital Operations at New Balance
Results: From $5B to $6.5B—and On Track for $10B
- Accelerated Revenue Growth
- Within two years of adopting VibeIQ, New Balance’s annual sales climbed from $5B to $6.5B—a significant stride toward the $10B goal.
- Faster, Data-Driven Decisions
- Reduced Cycle Times: Teams cut back on hours spent gathering information, redirecting efforts into strategic tasks like refining assortments.
- Improved MOQ Negotiations: Merchants avoided costly minimum shortfalls or excessive orders by adjusting production with real-time updates.
- Scalable Platform Adoption
- High User Advocacy: Post-training, users became strong advocates for VibeIQ within the organization, encouraging more teams to adopt the platform.
- Expanded Use Cases: After seeing success with Adopt & Assort, New Balance seamlessly moved into Concept & Plan, reinforcing VibeIQ as a long-term solution partner.
Change Management & Leadership Buy-In
- Smooth Rollout: Short pilot timelines and manageable training sessions minimized disruption, helping New Balance scale adoption across multiple departments.
- Executive Support: VibeIQ’s quick wins resonated with leadership, giving teams the green light to expand the platform’s footprint in pursuit of more ambitious goals.
- Trusted Partnership: New Balance regularly provided feedback that VibeIQ integrated into product updates—strengthening the relationship and fueling continued innovation.
“VibeIQ is as invested in our success as we are.”
— Mary Grim, Head of Global Digital Operations at New Balance
Looking Ahead: A Launchpad for Ongoing Innovation
By laying a solid technology foundation and fostering real-time collaboration, New Balance has positioned itself to keep innovating and scaling toward its $10B goal. With VibeIQ, the brand unlocked:
- Better-Informed Decision-Making: Clear, consistent product data drives smarter assortment and forecasting calls.
- Time Savings: Teams spend less energy scrambling for data, freeing them to focus on higher-value, strategic work.
- Future Possibilities: Armed with powerful, intuitive technology, New Balance can now reimagine even more processes—from concept to shelf.
See VibeIQ in Action
Ready to discover how empowering your teams with access to real-time product data and product visuals across the go-to-market calendar can fuel your company’s growth?
- Request a Demo to explore the platform in depth.
- Contact Us to discuss how VibeIQ can solve your specific challenges, just like it did for New Balance.
Transform your assortment lifecycle and power your next growth milestone with VibeIQ.
