New Balance has spent years proving American manufacturing quality can stand up to anywhere else in the world. Their newest release is proof of the other side of that bet: doing it right isn’t always cheap.
The Boston-based brand is releasing the 2040v5, and at $400, it’s got some serious heft.
New Balance built the shoe to push its domestic factories as far as they’ll go, combining premium materials with advanced tooling and construction. To start, the upper is wrapped in Horween leather, a move you’d normally expect on a boot, and the bottom has a full-length carbon fiber plate — that’s race-shoe tech right there.
Brian Lynn, New Balance’s Global Vice President of Lifestyle Product, said the team evaluated every detail through craft, performance, and material integrity, without trend-driven design choices. That’s not a huge surprise, given how New Balance has tried to keep things classic in their design language.
The Made in USA 2040v5 launches exclusively in North America on August 20 at newbalance.com and select retailers, with global availability following in May 2027.
New Balance, new shoe, old economy
New Balance has built a strong identity around their Made in USA line, and the 2040 has been the silhouette doing the heavy lifting.
The original 2040v1 launched back in 2012 as a flex model rather than one made to push huge numbers; each version since has picked up whatever New Balance’s domestic factories were capable of at the time.
The new carbon-plate setup and Horween leather on a lifestyle-leaning sneaker is a really unusual combination — that’s running-shoe engineering wrapped in the kind of high-grade leather typically reserved for boots or dress shoes.
It’s also a sign of New Balance putting real money behind the idea that domestic manufacturing can produce something more technically ambitious than the retro reissues that usually carry the Made in USA label.
Still, the economics are tough. Technically, to be labeled Made in USA without qualification, a product has to be “all or virtually all” domestic under FTC rules — New Balance doesn’t hit that, so the 2040v5 carries a qualified claim instead, at 70% or more domestic value.
New Balance’s Made in USA line is also still a small slice of what the brand actually sells in the US, where most of its footwear is made overseas. That doesn’t detract from the real allure of this release: it’s a big swing from a great heritage brand.
Where to buy it
The Made in USA 2040v5 launches August 20 at newbalance.com and select retailers, priced at $400.
Availability is exclusive to North America at launch, with the shoe reaching international markets in May 2027.
