Brooks CEO and President Reveal Its Keys to Consistency and Offer an Outlook for 2025

If you’re looking to prove that nurturing talent leads to success, there is arguably no better example in the running industry than Brooks.

After longtime chief executive officer Jim Weber announced his retirement in March, his role was filled by Dan Sheridan, a company veteran of 25 years. What’s more, Matt Dodge, whose career at Brooks started in 2013, was elevated to president and chief operating officer.

Months after the changes atop the leadership ranks, Brooks remains a leader in the ultracompetitive running marketplace. Notably, in its most recent reported quarter, Brooks surpassed $1 billion in global revenue year to date through September. This is the first time the Seattle-based brand has hit this milestone before the start of Q4.

And if its presence at The Running Event (TRE) last week was an indication, 2025 could also be a winning year for the brand. Aside from the influx of specialty run retailers, media members and more at its booth, Brooks revealed several can’t-miss styles for the year. These included the marathon-ready Hyperion Elite 5 that will debut in July, the highly-anticipated Glycerin 22 daily trainer in February and the responsive Catamount 4 trail running shoe that arrives in January.

While at TRE, both Sheridan and Dodge sat with FN and spoke about Brooks’ keys to consistency and offered an outlook for 2025.

You both have been promoted several times at Brooks over the years and now you’re leading the company. What does this say about Brooks and how the company nurtures and values talent?

Dan Sheridan: “It’s not an accident. This doesn’t happen without intention in how we set our values for our organization and how we live those values consistently. Jim Weber set those values for this organization 20-plus years ago. They were real. They aren’t words on a page. We tell stories about our values to all of the new employees so they’re activated regularly at Brooks. And the click down from that are the programs in our organization that people can plug into. We have a connect management program that every manager at Brooks goes through to make sure there’s consistency in how we treat people, accountability, our processes and what they’re expected to do. The other thing is our culture is one that rejects arrogance. We’re a humble organization that has incredible confidence in what we’re doing. We’ve got this long tenured group — Matt is an example, [senior vice president, chief marketing officer] Melanie [Allen] is an example. Tom Ross is our CFO of 20-plus years, Carson Caprara [SVP, footwear] at 20 years and [SVP, chief human resources officer] Katie Carlson is 13 years. You set the values, you have a system that reinforces it, you treat people fairly and equitably and you grow. You’ve got to grow. We’ve grown almost 15 percent over a 24-year period compounded. If we hadn’t grown, it would have been hard to these people because there wouldn’t be a lot of opportunity.”

Matt Dodge: “Dan and I, we’ve taken very different paths. Dan grew up in the business from the ground up. I came in from a completely different industry. What has been true for both of us, and what our job is, is for people to have access to leaders and that there isn’t a hierarchical or stratified vibe or culture in the building. We both benefited from having access to leaders when we were not in these positions, and that’s unique in my experience from different companies that I’ve worked at. We try to be intentional about giving people opportunities to shine and show their work.”

One word that comes to mind when thinking about Brooks is consistency. It’s there with leadership, it’s there with product and sales growth. What is the key to consistency?

DS: “A bit of it goes back to those values. First, you’ve got to have a culture that’s consistent, and having long time leader like Jim created the  foundation before you can do anything. The second is focus. We say at Brooks, ‘sharp focus creates mass appeal.’ Our focus on this category, and the investment focus we have on run specifically, creates consistency in how you build product, where you source it, how you get it to market, how you market it. You got to start with the strategy first, and that’s been a strategy that we’ve been on for 24 years. We want to create a system where everybody shows up as the best version of themselves, and we’ve been able to do that, and what that does is it creates great results all the way down through the organization, which is super fun to watch. It’s an empowerment model. We’re not making the decisions. We’re helping people make decisions, and that’s a coaching mentality. We love it when we see other brands spending hundreds of millions of dollars on other categories. It means they’re spending less on run, and we don’t have to make those decisions. We get to spend every dollar on running.”

MD: “That focus on running and the run lifestyle, it creates both space for us to be deeply committed to solving problems, but also it creates healthy pressure for us because we don’t have a safety net underneath that or something different to fall back on category-wise. It keeps us highly motivated. It keeps us in the right mindset of avoiding arrogance. We know that we’ve got to stay close to that consumer, so we keep them right at the center of everything and we are maniacally focused on that.”

You hit $1 billion in sales just nine months and appear to be firing on all cylinders. But where are you the most challenged?

DS: “We’ve had a journey in the last five-and-a-half years where we’ve been working on a lot of the challenges that we had. Coming out of our distribution challenges in ’19, we knew we had to professionalize the supply chain, and we did that. The reason we’re able to supply all of our products around the world is the work we did on our distribution network and our supply chain all the way up. That’s been intense work. Our opportunity moving forward is to diversify this brand in terms of product mix. We have a fantastic apparel business, but it’s a small percentage of our overall business, so we’re focused on that. Gaby Rodriguez just came to the company in January, and he’s maniacal on the focus for apparel. What you’re going to see in fall and spring is a new, refreshed look of Brooks. We’re going to diversify globally. We’re 80-plus percent in the North America region. We launched in China last year, we got our first store in China and we’re having incredible success — and China’s growing 70 percent in the third quarter. We continue to see that being a growth initiative. And then Europe, Matt just came back from Europe where he was leading the European business. We’ve doubled that over the last five years, and we see another double coming for us. We’ve got a diversification and expansion strategy, still anchoring on performance and runners, but really expanding this brand from a product assortment, category and regions.”

MD: “Operationalizing that and scaling it, while we remain very focused on our culture, creating opportunities for people and making sure that the overall business model is still very high service, that’s our opportunity.”

You’ve revealed several new partnerships in 2024, including Run Disney and the Seattle Kraken professional hockey team. What is Brooks’ sponsorship strategy?

DS: “When we look at sponsorships or partnerships, we start with the consumers we’re going after. Core endemic run is still the white-hot center for us in terms of executing our strategy. Where are runners showing up locally in the community? And how are they engaging in the sport? Events are back. Look at the race registration for all the major marathons all the way down to 5Ks and 10Ks. When we started to talk to Run Disney, it was the perfect overlap in a Venn diagram of the consumers that we were going after and the consumers they were engaging with. It’s a perfect scenario for us because it’s a consumer that absolutely we should be winning every day — not to mention it’s a pretty great brand for us to be engaged with. And there’s product opportunity for us. We’re going to have exclusive Run Disney product, and I can’t wait for you to see it. It blew us away when we saw it. The Kraken deal is a little different. Running is central to every high performing athlete’s training regimen. What we’re trying to do is find these communities where running is super important to them and you wouldn’t think about Brooks. We are the off-ice performance brand for the Kraken and we’re working directly with NHL athletes because running super important to them in their training. And guess what? People who watch sport are usually more active and more healthy, and they’re purchasing performance products. Where we have these opportunities outside of endemic run that really makes sense on the athlete and the consumer, we’re going to go after them and expand this brand to more people. It’s also a like-minded local brand. They’re community based, they’re charitably active and Brooks is also like that in the community.”

You’ve focused more on style with your footwear in 2024, including fashion-friendly colorways and collaborations. What opportunity does this present Brooks?

DS: “The data points that we know, we have roughly 16 million unique customers — runners, walkers and the like. I think all of them love Brooks, otherwise they wouldn’t choose us. We have an opportunity to expand our brand in the lifestyle of all those people. We know based on the engagement and the brand love that we get from that community, they’re asking for more products and more solutions from Brooks. That can be on the run, but it’s also broader than that, it’s off the run, and lifestyle footwear is an area that Brooks absolutely has permission to play for a lot of reasons. People care about this brand, they’re passionate about this brand, but we have a heritage of product that’s sitting in the vault that people would love to wear. That is an opportunity for us. And then the sneaker culture is one where an authentic brand — we’re 110 years old — has another permission to play there. It’s a big market for us. Are we going to be the biggest in lifestyle? No, but we’re starting to work on a strategy to roll that out, and I’m excited to show it to you next time we talk because I think it’s going to be fun.”

What story is Brooks looking to tell with its spring and fall 2025 footwear?

DS: “Innovation is leading this industry, and we think we’re at the forefront of it. What’s happening in spring of ’25 is continued innovation in foam in performance run. We think we’re leading that in a lot of different ways. Nitrogen-infused DNA [midsole foam] is industry leading right now. We just launched the Glycerin Max in October, and I can’t tell you how impressed we are with a premium position product from Brooks at $200 MSRP, and the demand that we had behind that. What you’re going to see is that story continued to be expressed in spring. Speed, the super shoe, matters. What used to be front of the pack is now throughout the entire marathon — plus four hours, there’s people purchasing the super shoe. So Hyperion franchise for us is a huge story in the spring. And we have the No. 1 selling running shoe in the world in the Ghost, and the Ghost 17 launches in fall ’25. That will be a continued evolution of a midsole compound that’s going to win the runner. And then apparel comes in. I’m so excited about the future for apparel because this is where we can connect a category to these 16 million unique runners that we have. We’ve got incredible stories throughout the year.”

MD: “With that full-court press on the innovation front, we are getting better and we’re putting more emphasis on layering and merchandising focus to get to a place where the assortments are really attracting a wider range of consumers. That’s going to be a big focus for us also, and matching that to our distribution well. The storytelling focus around the midsoles, the performance innovations, is going to be a big priority.”

DS: “The other thing I would add, we launched a new brand campaign called ‘Let’s Run There,’ and you will see that in a very big way starting in January. It’s already out in market, but you’re going to see a bigger footprint in terms of brand awareness for Brooks. It’s an expression of our brand that I think is pitch perfect for both the new consumer that’s coming in, the Gen Z that’s choosing health and wellness, and our existing customer. This journey of your run that everybody’s on — you’re on one, I’m on one — but it tells that story of why people run and how important it is in our life.”

About the Author

Peter Verry is the Senior News and Features Editor for Athletic and Outdoor at Footwear News. He oversees coverage of the two fast-paced and ultracompetitive markets, which includes conducting in-depth interviews with industry leaders and writing stories on sneakers and outdoor shoes. He is a lifelong sneaker addict (and shares his newest purchases via @peterverry on Instagram) and spends most of his free time on a trail. He holds an M.A. in journalism from Hofstra University and can be reached at peter.verry@footwearnews.com.