Melissa Worth revealed on Friday that she is departing New Balance.
The SVP of Americas wrote in a Linked post that she closing her chapter at the brand, which has seen strong growth in the past few years. Worth noted that she’s “excited for what’s next,” but did not disclose specific plans.
“Leading this team has been one of the greatest privileges of my career. I’m proud of the business we’ve built together and the brand’s tremendous growth during this time,” she wrote. “Across these seven years, we’ve broken through milestone after milestone — each one a testament to the talent, resilience, and ambition of this team.”
FN reached out to Worth and New Balance for comment.
The executive — who has been a huge force in championing female talent — joined New Balance in 2018 and led more than 2,000 employees in the brand’s largest region, overseeing key divisions including wholesale, retail, e-commerce, marketing, merchandising, operations and finance. She used her skills to streamline operations and deliver the brand’s high-heat products faster.
“I love change and the challenge of evolution and am always looking at ways our teams can improve,” she said in a 2024 FN interview. “Over my time at New Balance we have looked at the marketplace and our approach to it through this lens. By evolving how we go to market and how our initiatives are linked through our go-to-market process, key partners and the end consumer, we have been able to accelerate the growth of the brand across the Americas.”
At the WWD x FN x Beauty Inc. Women in Power event in September, Worth opened up about the company’s journey to become a formidable player in the women’s market.
“Not long ago, our consumer was older, male. We knew that as a brand, if we were to grow, we had to get younger and we had to get more female, so we started being very deliberate about some of the investments that we were making as a brand,” she said.
The brand began working with female long-distance runners, and then kicked it up with investments in track, with high profile Olympians Gabby Thomas and Sydney McLaughlin. Tennis star Coco Gauff has been another powerful female athlete leading New Balance’s roster.
“The partnership that we have with any one of our ambassadors, including our female athletes, really means it’s a set of shared values. And it’s not just something that is transactional, but [that] we’re also in it for the long run,” Worth said on stage.
Outside of being visible at high-profile women’s leadership events, the executive has been an active member of Two Ten and serves on the philanthropic group’s WIFI Advisory Board.
