Where the F**k is Flimby? Inside New Balance's 40th Anniversary Celebrations at the Legendary Factory

If you’re into your New Balance sneakers, you might have heard about the Flimby factory. Though the manufacturer is known for being Boston-based, its founder’s roots can actually be traced back to the UK, but whilst the Flimby factory remains the stuff of New Balance legend, you might be wondering exactly what makes the location so significant and why New Balance chose it for its Made in UK operation. This year, New Balance celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the factory, and luckily for us, we were invited to join the party. As excited as we were, when we mentioned it to the rest of the office (and our friends and family) we were all greeted with the same response. “Where the fuck is Flimby?” became quite the topic of conversation, but to help everyone understand the location’s significance a little better, we thought it best to take you on the same trip we made, with the same input from the people that call Flimby home, on the way.

Flimby is a small coastal village in Cumbria with a population of around 1700 people. Sitting next to the Irish Sea, it feels small, grey and almost empty, but if you peel back its harsh layers (or visit on a less cloudy day) you’ll quickly find its charm. At the heart of Flimby is a tight-knit community that was more than happy to chat with us about the area, and of course about New Balance, and we learned a lot while we were there.

The four of us arrived by train from our respective cities into Penrith North Lakes station, where we were quickly picked up in a New Balance-branded taxi. Along with me were two members of our creative team, John and Lana (who, like me couldn’t point to Flimby on a map before we visited), and Raph - a die-hard New Balance fan who described visiting the factory as a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ and skipped his cousin’s wedding to make the trip. Leaving the small town of Penrith and looking out of the taxi windows, we watched the sky gradually darken behind the mountainous landscape. The first bout of rain was over as quickly as it started, and there was something that told us that it wouldn't be the only shower we’d see over the next two days.

Speeding along the Cumbrian A-roads, we pointed our cameras at the views. “Do you want to get a good view of the lake?” our driver asked. We nodded “For sure - if that’s okay?” We pulled into a tiny village, and then snaked up what I assumed was a (small) mountain. Halfway up, we came to a viewpoint, where we got out of the taxi to admire the scenery. We thanked him for the tour, he just said “It’s nice to be able to show off where I live.”

There is no doubt that the drive was beautiful, but we’d been expecting that we’d see the factory site on the first day, yet instead were dropped off at our hotel. On arrival, we explained to the lady at the desk that we were there to see what all the Flimby factory fuss was about. She informed us, rather excitedly, that New Balance was one of the biggest employers of the area - the other being a timber mill, which sounded infinitely less fun. Cursing that we were a little too late to book the luxury yurts on site, we settled into our rooms before being picked up that evening to visit the infamous Bitter End pub in Cockermouth - that night’s free bar.

After a buffet-style dinner of rich curries, British tapas, and huge slabs of pie, we were left to mingle with other New Balance partners: friends from Patta, END. and various magazines were all looking forward to the full Flimby experience, as well as international New Balance teams who’d flown into Manchester Airport, and then been driven a couple of hours into the Cumbrian hills. Though we’d hoped to be able to chat with locals and get an even better feel for the place, the pub appeared to have been booked out by the brand, and when we left the sleepy town of Cockermouth seemed just that: sleepy.

According to our tour guide, Matt, it rains an average of 200 days a year in the Lake District, and on the morning of the second day, I saw no reason to question him. That morning, we woke, excited to see the factory despite the weather, and after filling up on breakfast we headed to our pick-up spot. Driving past the Welcome to Flimby sign, we saw the shore and a train station, and then before we knew it we’d already exited the town, which has an estimated area of 0.53km². Looking to our right, the factory sign came into view, the building itself obscuring the sight of the yurts, which as we half-expected, were next to a field of cows. For city dwellers like us, this was pretty exciting - but we remained cosy in our hotel at night, unlike those who were woken up to mooing at 3am. Prepared for every eventuality, New Balance had slipped some earplugs in the tent gifting bags for this very reason.

We had some time before our tour, but not enough to explore the beach opposite, so we headed to the factory outlet instead. The outlet is open to the public, and in there we found some of our favourite silhouettes: 991s, 1500s, and a couple of collaborations - so it’s well worth a visit if you ever happen to be in the area. After emptying our savings accounts (Raph bought three bags full of sneakers) we headed into the factory for the next activity.

Donning the necessary safety goggles and earplugs, we were led around the production line by Nick, who gave us a detailed run-down of each stage of the shoe-making process. From start to finish, each stage requires skilled work, whether that’s checking to make sure the leather has no flaws and then cutting around any flaws in a way that produces as little waste as possible, to the gluing and heat-pressing that help the shoe to take shape, every step is crucial in ensuring that the shoe is of a high enough quality to bear the Made in UK branding. When we reached the seamstresses, Nick explained that the famed ‘N’ logos, collars, heel tabs and tongues are all hand-stitched, with this all taking place within an insanely quick 33 seconds, allowing the factory to pump out just under 30,000 pairs a week. Though it may seem like a lot to you and I, it's a much, much smaller operation than your usual shoe factory, which just goes to show the levels of care, detail and craftsmanship that go into the Flimby-born silhouettes.

“There’s only one official lake in the Lake District,” Matt told me before explaining that the rest were called meres, or water. After finishing off the factory tour we were on a hike that turned out to be the world’s hardest pub crawl, testing out the trail shoes that New Balance had kindly provided us. Although it was still raining, we felt lucky to have escaped the hustle and bustle of the city for the fresh air, taking what Matt had called the ‘chilled version’ of the route, and still managing to lose our footing a couple of times. Pressing him for another Cumbrian fun fact, he told me that 95% of the Herwick sheep we could see were native to Cumbria, and explained that mountains were called fells, and named after old Norse words. Pointing to a distant fell, he said that it was called Catbells - loosely translated to the home of the (wild) cats. I asked what he liked about his job, and he told me that he’d moved up from Brighton to be a mountain guide. Now, he lived in the area and got to spend his days rambling through the stunning countryside of the Lakes, and despite the rain, I was starting to see the appeal.

Most people don’t realise this, but the New Balance factory is actually built on top of an old coal mine. The towns and villages around Maryport are mostly old pit villages, and after the mines began to close, they struggled for employment. Companies such as New Balance (and the aforementioned timber mill) have provided the local area with many more opportunities for jobs, whilst managing to remain sensitive to the area’s heritage at the same time. As part of the celebrations, we were treated to a performance by the Flimby Male Voice Choir, a singing group that started out 140 years ago by singing while working in the mines. Now, most of them were well into retirement age, and enjoyed singing in the choir as a hobby. Rather heartbreakingly, they explained that the age demographic of the choir meant that they’d started to lose members, but by working with New Balance (the choir featured on the 40th-anniversary video too) they hoped to reach a new audience by spreading awareness of the group. Having worked with the UK team on a couple of projects, members of the choir told us that the factory’s presence has brought employment, pride, international links, and was renowned for being a good place to work.

The choir sang us into the final event of the trip - a night of celebration in the factory itself. Showcasing the best in Northern Soul and dance music from legendary DJs and ex-factory workers alike, the party was free-flowing with music, and for some of us, a few too many mojitos. Kicking off the night, NB marketing manager Joe Connolly left us with a rather poignant speech:

“Welcome everybody, to Flimby. I guess it’s now time for me to speak on behalf of the brand, but as always with Flimby I find it difficult not to speak from the heart, to speak personally. I’ve been at New Balance for eight years, and for eight years I’ve been coming to Flimby. With every drive I get excited, and that’s thanks to the men and women that are here, and that work so hard to make what we think is the best product. We’re celebrating 40 years of domestic manufacturing, and that’s something we can be immensely proud of,” he said. With that, the party started - and as far as that goes, what happens in Flimby stays in Flimby.

For a small village, Flimby has a huge amount of heart, is home to an abundance of talent, and plays an immense part in New Balance’s brand identity and strategy. Physically, yes - it’s hard to point to - I probably still couldn’t do it if I tried and even if i could it’d hardly take up much surface area, but that's okay. The fact is, what *really* puts Flimby on the map is the community that it’s home to, and the connections that the Massachusetts-based brand has fostered to support and nurture it.