{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senator-collins-announces-new-balance-contract-to-produce-athletic-shoes-in-maine-for-the-us-military", "Senator Collins Announces New Balance Contract to Produce Athletic Shoes in Maine for the U.S. Military", "2026-09-18", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "Senate", "ME", "Susan M. Collins", "C001035", "www.collins.senate.gov", "collins", "https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Susan Collins announced that New Balance has been awarded a contract by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to provide athletic shoes for members of the U.S. military. The shoes will be produced at the New Balance Central Maine facility in Skowhegan.\n\nUnder the three-year contract, DLA could purchase up to 540,000 pairs of New Balance athletic shoes, with a minimum purchase of 22,000 pairs annually.\n\n\u201cNew Balance is a great American company, and it is terrific news that more of our nation\u2019s servicemembers will now be outfitted with high-quality athletic shoes made right here in the United States. Maintaining a strong American footwear supply chain is important to our national security and helps ensure that our servicemembers have access to the best equipment when they need it most. I have worked closely with New Balance for years to support American footwear manufacturing and to strengthen the domestic industrial base that our military depends on. This contract builds on that longstanding partnership and is a major win for New Balance, its hardworking employees in Maine, and for American manufacturing,\u201d said Senator Collins.\n\n\u201cNew Balance is proud to have been awarded this contract to provide our U.S. service members with our specialized MADE in USA 0430 athletic footwear for basic training,\u201d said Kevin McCoy, Vice President for MADE at New Balance. \u201cSenator Collins\u2019 strong leadership and relentless support for American manufacturing have helped to ensure our country\u2019s military recruits will receive high-quality athletic shoes produced by our skilled associates in Central Maine.\u201d\n\nSenator Collins has long worked to support New Balance and American footwear manufacturing. She and other members of the Maine Delegation successfully secured a provision in the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Department of Defense to provide military recruits with American-made athletic footwear in accordance with the Berry Amendment. The provision allowed domestic manufacturers such as New Balance to compete for military footwear contracts. In 2018, the DLA awarded New Balance a $17.3 million contract to provide American-made athletic shoes to military recruits, which were also produced in Maine.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-19T09:11:33Z", "2026-09-19T09:12:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senator-collins-announces-new-balance-contract-to-produce-athletic-shoes-in-maine-for-the-us-military"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3366332277655602, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}