Courtesy of Brooks
- Brooks Running CEO Jim Weber expects more people to pick up running now than at the beginning of the pandemic.
- He told Yahoo Finance that running has been "recession resistant" over the last 30 years.
- The performance shoe brand reported record revenue of $1.2 billion in 2022.
After successfully navigating the pandemic, Brooks Running CEO Jim Weber is out to prove his performance shoe brand is also recession-proof.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Weber said he expects more people to pick up running as a hobby in 2023 compared to early in the pandemic when consumers turned to running in droves as a safe way to exercise.
"I think running has a good shot of muddling through this economy with all of the ups and downs we see," he said. "Over the last 30 years it's been more or less recession resistant. We saw it in the dot-com bust two decades ago, The Great Recession, even in Covid when retail shut down. People were out there running and our category grew."
Brooks finished 2022 with record revenue of $1.2 billion, up 6% compared to the year prior. Direct-to-consumer sales increased by 16%.
In a statement, Brooks said the company overcame supply chain obstacles in the first half of the year, which limited inventory available to sell to customers. Brooks was able to better meet demand over the last six months and opened new distribution centers in the US and UK, leading to 26% growth in sales in the fourth quarter.
"The future has never been brighter for performance running," Weber said in a statement. "We look forward to introducing more runners to Brooks this year, giving them the premium fit, performance, and experience they desire from their gear."
Brooks became the top adult performance running brand in the US in January 2022 and finished the year with 21% market share, the company said, citing NPD data. Its Ghost and Adrenaline GTS held the top two spots in performance footwear styles sold by US retailers.
Weber previously told Insider that Brooks is on the road to $4 billion in revenue by 2030. The number is comparable to Nike's wholesale running business in its most recent fiscal year.
"That's the opportunity we see for Brooks," Weber said last summer.