Jim Weber: Industry Thought Brooks Would Fail by Focusing Solely on Running
Jim Weber · Arena Show Part II: Brooks Running (with CEO Jim Weber) · Acquired · May 16, 2022 · at 13:55
Jim Weber, CEO of Brooks Running, describes the industry reaction to Brooks' strategic pivot to drop low-margin sports shoes and focus exclusively on performance running.
0:00 / 0:11exact quote · 11.6s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And so, but when we made the decision to burn the boats on everything, but performance running, the industry had never seen that before. And most people thought we were crazy that we wouldn't survive.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Jim Weber
Weber: Real Footwear Revenue Is in Daily Trainers, Not Racing Shoes
“I think we were the first one to identify that the real business was in trainers. It wasn't in racing shoes. It wasn't in spikes. It wasn't in marathon racing shoes. The business is in the trainers.”
Weber: Track Officials Ejected Brooks Execs From 2012 Olympic Trials
“They kicked me out, our head of marketing, and our head of sports marketing.”
Weber: Footwear's Multi-Sport Sprawl Began With Factory Utilization Pressures
“And what no one understood that I found out later is that the mindset in our industry literally came from owning a factory. When you had a shoe factory, you had to keep it busy all year long and keep the people employed. So you went from baseball cleats to wre…”
Brooks CEO: Running business is everyday wellness, not elite competition
“The sport is the soul of running, right? Track and field, cross country, road racing, the Olympics, now trail and ultra, but the business is people that are investing in themselves, fitness and health and wellness.”