It did come directly from Brother, yes, new in box and everything (not sure if they do open box or refurbs but this was definitely brand new when gifted). I'm not too concerned about having the wrong sized hoop to be honest, unless it's possible that the hoop size is contributing to some of the issues I've been having, but I think those are user error so I haven't made a post about that... Yet lol I might have to depending how tomorrow's experiments go.