From global brand to local movement: Stuart Henwood on New Balance’s Middle East growth story
As New Balance accelerates its Middle East expansion, senior director Stuart Henwood explains how community, culture, and a glocal mindset are reshaping the brand’s regional footprint
30 December, 2025
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New Balance has expanded steadily across the Middle East by prioritising community engagement and local relevance alongside its global brand playbook. With Stuart Henwood, senior director for MEAI, overseeing the region, the company has grown its retail footprint and deepened its presence across key markets.
As the brand heads into 2026, Henwood discusses a year defined by a 90-store network, double-digit growth, and rising participation in running across the region. Here, he outlines how New Balance is building scale through digital investment in the UAE, long-term partnerships in Qatar, and an inclusive approach to performance and lifestyle sport.
How has New Balance done since its launch, particularly in terms of regional expansion and growth?
We launched our MEAI subsidiary in Dubai in July 2019. Fast forward to 2025, and we are proud to say we have 90 stores across the MEAI region. In 2025 alone, we opened 15 new NB mono-branded stores across the region, across franchise partners and our own operated doors, twice the number of new stores planned this year and a full omnichannel platform launching January 1, 2026, with the launch of our Newbalance.co.ae site.
Our current retail footprint is very much a reflection of our long-term ambition, which is also about strengthening New Balance’s presence across the region, offering immersive, brand-led experiences that resonate with both existing enthusiasts and new consumers. Community is at the heart of everything we do. The MEAI is a diverse region, and the fact that we have a sub-regional hub in the UAE talks to the growth & focus on this region. We are only just getting started.
What made Doha the right place for New Balance to strengthen its sponsorship footprint, and how does this reflect the city’s ambition to become a running capital for the Middle East?
Doha is a city that is driven by progress, rooted in community, and deeply connected to sport. Over the past few years, Qatar has made remarkable strides in developing world-class infrastructure and fostering a culture that celebrates health, fitness, and outdoor activity, hosting landmark events such as the FIFA World Cup, the World Athletics Championships, and launching events such as Qatar National Sports Day, all in line with Qatar’s 2030 Vision. That vision aligns perfectly with our commitment to democratising running and supporting athletes at every level and reflects a nation that is deeply committed to inspiring active lifestyles and growing sports participation at every level.
At New Balance, we see that ambition, and we want to be part of that movement, not just as a brand but as a genuine contributor to Qatar’s sporting future. We’re working the ground closely with communities and key organisations to help shape that growth from within.
Our partnership with the Doha Marathon by Ooredoo is a perfect example. For us, it’s a long-term commitment to grow the running community. We’re already seeing tremendous excitement and year-on-year growth in participation numbers, and we expect 2026 to be the biggest edition yet. We’re flying in runners from all across the region to run with New Balance this year, and we cannot wait to see what they achieve.
Additionally, our New Balance Run Club (NBRC) continues to expand, with double the number of coaches and pacers compared to last year, ensuring every runner, from beginner to elite, feels supported and seen.
Our local ambassador, Lulwa Al Marri, one of Qatar’s first female triathletes, joins these runs and helps us encourage the community to ‘Run Your Way’. She truly embodies our ethos, inspiring others to find confidence through movement and sport, and was featured in our global campaign.
On the field of play, we are the proud kit sponsor of Al Sadd Football Club, one of the leading clubs in the AFC and winners of the double last year. We have a long-standing relationship with Al Sadd and engaging with their fan base and the communities is of paramount importance.
Lastly, through our collaboration with Aspire Academy, we’re investing in the next generation of athletes who are not just runners but future leaders across multiple sports.
It’s this shared belief in progress, purpose, and performance that makes Qatar’s energy and inclusivity the ideal home for this next chapter of New Balance in the region.
With running participation soaring across the region, how is New Balance leveraging this momentum to engage new audiences and grow the sport’s culture through initiatives?
At New Balance, we believe that sport has the power to create lasting, positive changes in communities, and that belief continues to guide everything we do. Running has evolved beyond competition and become about the ‘celebration’ of connection and progress. Run your way is our running campaign and a fully inclusive campaign where it doesn’t matter if you run 42km or 1km, we consider you a runner and part of our community
Across the Middle East, we’re seeing that shift firsthand through our growing community initiatives. The New Balance Run Club (NBRC) has rapidly expanded with chapters across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Doha. Our approach is community-first and is built to make every runner feel welcome, no matter their pace or experience.
We’re also proud to collaborate with Jumeirah Johns Running Club (JJRC), one of Dubai’s most active running communities. Together, we’ve launched creative formats like LEVEL 7, designed to inspire people to move differently and make running social, accessible, and fun.
Initiatives like Mallathons and other community-led events are helping us redefine what participation looks like, reinforcing our ‘Run Your Way’ ground.
Beyond running, we’re strengthening local sports culture through football from our ongoing partnership with Al Sadd, to our support of grassroots programs like Go Pro Academies and our football talent identification program that helps uncover the next generation of regional athletes.
What are some of the local activations that New Balance is doing, and how are these activations translating into retail growth, brand loyalty, and a deeper cultural footprint in the region?
We want to be globally consistent while being locally relevant – a GLOCAL approach. That means not simply importing global campaigns but interpreting them for local culture and behaviour, and also coming up with local campaigns. A good example is how New Balance hosted Ramadan sunset runs instead of traditional post-Iftar activations and launched the first capsule collection for Ramadan, which was introduced at a desert runway show featuring regional icons like Karen Wazen and Amy Roko.
New Balance has always aimed to create experiences that feel rooted in the community, not flown in from elsewhere, which was also reflected in the New Balance Souq at BRED Abu Dhabi. Inspired by traditional Middle Eastern courtyards, the space combined design, community engagement, and local hospitality, including a collaboration with Moroccan eatery Mamati Café, to create an experience that truly champions meaningful cultural storytelling.
Another example of how we tap into the region’s lifestyle and passions was the takeover of Koncrete Café in Dubai for the launch of the 1906 Loafer. Blending the local love for café culture with fashion and creativity, the café became a social hub that connected the brand with a younger, style-conscious community in an authentic, everyday environment.
As mentioned before, LEVEL 7, a community-first vertical run that we created in partnership with Jumeirah Johns Running Club, was driven by the community, for the community. The run reflected our “Run Your Way” philosophy and reinforced how we continue to bring people together through movement.
These activations go beyond merely being memorable events and drive retail growth by bringing customers into our stores and showing New Balance’s commitment to culture and community. It’s through these local activations and more that New Balance has deepened its footprint in the region and become an authentic participant in local life, not just a global name.
As New Balance expands across the Middle East, how has this translated into financial growth?
The Middle East has gone from being an emerging opportunity to a core commercial engine for New Balance. Considering New Balance has always been at the intersection of sports and culture, both performance and lifestyle are equally integral to the brand, with lifestyle continuing to represent a significant share of sales, particularly in this region. However, what’s unique here is how performance is now catching up rapidly.
What differentiates us is agility. Being privately held gives us the freedom to move fast, make long-term decisions, and partner selectively. That’s allowed us to scale up quickly without compromising on our identity and ethos. With the Middle East as a strong example, from KSA to Qatar to the UAE, we’re seeing double-digit YOY growth across both DTC retail and wholesale partnerships, and more importantly, growing equity, not just revenue.
Looking ahead, how does the Middle East fit into New Balance’s broader global growth story? Where do you see the next wave of opportunity? Is it in new markets, new communities, or new ways of connecting sport and culture?
NB MEAI is one of the fastest-growing regions within the business, and we have significant ambitions for growth and expansion. We are living among one of the youngest populations in the world, and this represents a key opportunity for the brand. For us and similar to all our global counterparts, our journey is and will continue to be shaped by markets that don’t just consume culture but create it, and the Middle East is a perfect example of that evolution and sports investment.
Our presence across the region has never been stronger. In Qatar, we recently opened our newest stores at Place Vendôme Mall and Mall of Qatar, complementing our locations at Doha Festival City and beyond. In Saudi Arabia, we continue to grow strategically with stores in Jeddah’s U Walk and Red Sea Mall, and in Riyadh at Granada Mall, Riyadh Park, and King Khalid International Airport. In the UAE, our fourth store in Abu Dhabi just opened in Marina Mall, and it’s only the beginning.
The next wave of opportunity isn’t just about expanding into new cities, but about opening access across communities. From New Balance Running Clubs that foster participation to the rise of sport-meets-fashion in places like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, we’re focused on facilitating movement in every sense of the word.
We also see huge potential in the region’s growing appetite for premium athletic and lifestyle products, the rise of experiential and immersive retail, the expansion of digital and omnichannel capabilities, and the increasing demand for locally relevant products and storytelling.
While retail growth remains a key priority, our biggest investment will always be in relationships with partners, athletes, creators, and the runners who show up before sunrise. For New Balance, success in the Middle East isn’t defined by distribution, but by integration, and by becoming part of the community and the culture.
