New Balance MY apologises and ceases sale of shoes containing pigskin ingredients

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Footwear brand New Balance Malaysia has apologised for and removed a model of shoes from its shelves after discovering it contained pigskin ingredients and that the information was not appropriately disclosed.

According to a statement seen by A+M, New Balance Malaysia said that it had received multiple queries regarding the material composition for its U990TA4 shoe style. After an investigation, the company found that a small part of the shoe contained pigskin.

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“Accuracy and transparency are critical to our team at New Balance, and we sincerely apologise to any customer who received inaccurate information from our team,” said New Balance in an apology posted to its Facebook page.

“We take full responsibility for this lapse in communication and are committed to providing a satisfactory solution for our affected customers,” the statement said.

As part of its effort to regain consumer confidence, the brand is offering a full refund or product exchange for customers who purchased the U990TA4 shoes from the online or physical stores of New Balance, Crossover, and ATMOS KL in Malaysia.

The offer is effective immediately, valid for three months and excludes factory outlets.

New Balance Malaysia has also stated that it has recalled and ceased the sale of the U990TA4 shoes and have informed its partners and distributors to implement to do the same until the label of the shoe is updated.

Shoes that contain pigskin and sold in Malaysia are usually labelled and wrapped in plastic to ensure that Muslim patrons do not accidentally come into contact with the material.

Recently, Starbucks Malaysia was "actively investigating" an incident after a customer took to Facebook to share an unpleasant experience she had at the cafe where a barista wrote her name down as 'babi'.

The customer, Bavitra Ramachandran, took to Facebook this week to share an image of her Starbucks drink which she got from Sunway Velocity Mall. Where baristas typically jot down the name of a customer, they had instead written the word 'babi' which translates to pig and is an offensive term in Malay.

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