Matt Dodge, president and COO at Brooks Running, talked with SGB Executive about the running brand’s growth in 2025, what’s working in performance run, the company’s latest lifestyle range, tariffs, and plans to build on its momentum in 2026.
Dodge has been Brooks’ president and COO since August 2024. He joined the company as associate general counsel in 2013. Other roles he has held include VP of HR and general counsel, managing director of EMEA and managing director of Brooks International.
In 2025, Brooks reported a 16 percent year-over-year increase, extending its track record to nine consecutive years of growth, with double-digit growth in all regions and channels, including 13 percent growth in North America and accelerating growth overseas.
SGB: What’s driving Brook’s growth in North America?
Matt Dodge: It’s really meaningful increases across both wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels. I would say there are three core drivers. One, just great product. We saw really strong demand for our core styles, like the Glycerin series, the Ghost Max, the Adrenaline 25, and that obviously matters a lot. Secondly, we just continue to invest in this brand with our Let’s Run There brand campaign and platform. It’s fundamentally getting that content and our products out in front of more consumers in-store, out-of-home, digital media, TV, etc. And the third key pillar is just our service focus. We invest in providing best-in-class service for our customers and consumers, and that drives an execution excellence mindset across a lot of different teams, from supply chain to sales to our service teams. And it really fueled our growth.
SGB Media: Many running brands appear to be doing well. Is Brooks taking a share in North America, or is it a case where all boats are rising?Matt Dodge: We definitely saw a continued rise in running participation in the U.S., which drove overall market growth, especially in the performance running footwear segment in 2025. So, the tide is rising, but we are doing really well on market share. In Q4 2025, we achieved the number one market position in the performance running footwear segment in U.S. specialty retail, and in the broader U.S. market, we gained share for the year. The category is as competitive as ever, which ultimately means consumers benefit and win. And consumers are choosing Brooks.
SGB Media: Has the international business reached an inflection point in its growth?
Matt Dodge: I do think we are at an inflection point in a positive way. Our EMEA region grew 22 percent, APLA grew 66 percent, and China specifically was up 245 percent. So really positive. In Germany specifically, we ended the year as the number one brand in adult running footwear at €90 and up. Germany’s the biggest market in Europe, so that’s a great indicator. I think that international growth really signals our emergence as a leader in performance running worldwide, not just in the U.S. There are a number of key drivers contributing to that performance. For one, all of our regions now have clear strategies for building localized go-to-market playbooks that pull from our core business model principles but are tuned to local realities. We are executing against those really well. Secondly, we’ve just got more organizational focus on it than we’ve ever had. We’re building out our regional organizations in Europe and Asia to support the growth we’re achieving now and the growth that we’re planning in the future. And we’re fueling these strategies in these teams by putting the brand in front of more runners. So that shows up at retail, in digital marketing, and in how we support local events around the world. It’s just a function of those things, and it’s great to see.
SGB Media: Can you talk about some recent wins in performance run product?
Matt Dodge: We’re really excited about the suite of performance products we’ve got right now. In 2025, we had 10 footwear styles that grew by 20 percent or more. The Glycerin series, which features Brooks’ new DNA-tuned midsole foam, grew 33 percent. The Adrenaline GTS, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, contributed double-digit growth as a top seller. We are also pushing into what we think is next in performance innovation this year with the recent launch of the all-new Glycerin Flex. That style features an industry-first articulated and segmented midsole, offering a combination of tuned cushioning and dynamic flexibility that doesn’t exist in the market today. So, it’s disrupting the category, in our view, and it’s pushing off a bit on where the market has gone, which is all-in on this maximal trend. Our view is that the future of running is personal. The consumer is going to want a range of experiences, including maximal experiences as well as this kind of more connected experience you can get with a product like the Glycerin Flex. Our job is to make sure we’ve got products for all the experiences these runners will want.
SGB: Brooks debuted a new lifestyle footwear collection at Paris Fashion Week last year. How has it been received? What’s your approach to the category?
Matt Dodge: We’ve had a strong initial response to the collection, so we’re happy about that. The key to our approach is treating this category as an integrated part of our overall brand strategy. Our brand is anchored in performance running. That’s the source of our identity, and it’s the first thing we would want people to think of when they think of Brooks. The lifestyle category gives us an opportunity to tell rich, deep stories rooted in our performance running history, and doing so will enable us to introduce Brooks to other people who buy performance running gear in a different way and through a different medium than they might otherwise meet us. And that adds dimension to our story, but it is absolutely connected to our identity, and it’s rooted in authentic expression. So, the way we think about it is that if we do our job well, our lifestyle efforts will feel distinctly Brooks and be fully integrated into our brand identity. We believe that runners will be drawn to that.
SGB: Are you reaching new distribution with the lifestyle push?
Matt Dodge: Our initial focus right now is to establish the product in some of the world’s more influential lifestyle boutiques.
SGB: Brooks still operates one U.S. store at its headquarters in Seattle, but now has a bunch in China. Is Brooks rethinking its approach to stores?
Matt Dodge: It starts for us with a multi-channel view of the world. Our job is to create a great offering and to build a healthy ecosystem that runners can access. Run specialty is a critical part of that. But we also see brand stores as part of our multi-channel mix. We’re a little ahead on the brand store side in our development in the China market. In China, it’s a mono-branded market, so branded retail is a necessity for physical distribution. We’ve been opening stores in China over the past few years, which has helped us build momentum there. Aside from the 245 percent growth rate, we also ranked as the number one international brand for sub-three-hour finishers at the Shanghai Marathon. So, the stores are an important part of that, and it’s exciting because China is the second-largest running market worldwide, and participation is expanding rapidly. We’re probably going to open 20 to 25 more stores in China this year.
SGB: What’s been Brooks’ strategy around tariffs?
Matt Dodge: We’re a global company that sells across global markets, and we produce most of our footwear in Southeast Asia, so the U.S. tariff landscape, which continues to be fluid, is impactful for us. Last year, we built an action plan grounded in an end-to-end evaluation of our value chain, where we’re looking for ways to absorb those increased costs from source to market. We did a lot of work with our partners to find operational efficiencies, and we did make some modest price increases on a few select styles, where we felt, coming in, that the prices were a little bit below market. Our playbook has allowed us to be both responsive and measured. And we feel prepared to continue serving our customers and runners at a high level, regardless of where these tariffs net out.
SGB: Can you call out any major pushes or initiatives Brooks has planned for 2026?
Matt Dodge: We’re excited about supporting the Glycerin Flex rollout this year. We’ve got some other new, innovative styles that we’re bringing to market this year, including the Cascadia Elite, Hyperion Elite 6 and Ghost AMP. Beyond that, we’re front-footed on investments. We’re going to continue investing in global expansion, with a focus on Europe and China. We’re continuing to invest in driving brand demand across our multi-channel ecosystem in the U.S. We’re also going to continue investing in product innovation to fuel our pipeline beyond this year, and we’re rebooting our apparel offering. We’ve got a fresh look for apparel this year, launched with the spring 2026 season, that delivers on our promise of great gear designed for the run. But we think the executions are beautiful and versatile, and we’re excited about that as well.
SGB: What’s Brooks’ Outlook for 2026?
Matt Dodge: We anticipate that the underlying trends that I talked about earlier, of increased participation and interest in the most performance run products, continue in 2026. That’s a great foundation when you match it with our excitement about our products and programs. So, we’re optimistic about continued global growth for Brooks this year. Obviously, it’s a dynamic, fast-paced world and we’ve all navigated unforeseen disruptions over the past six-plus years. So, there may be headwinds, but we’ll take them as they come, and we feel confident that people will continue to gravitate towards physical activity and movement, and that we’ve got a team and a culture that can adapt and absorb any change. But we are bullish generally on our outlook.
SGB: Brooks reached its $1 billion goal in 2024. Has the brand set any new goals you can share?
Matt Dodge:That $1 billion goal was an important milestone because it signified a certain level of success in fulfilling our mission. But it was never the end goal in and of itself. Our focus as we go forward is continuing to help more people become better versions of themselves through the run and ultimately becoming the most trusted performance running brand globally. That’s where our focus is. It’s a long-term ambition we’ll continue to pursue, and we’ll keep working on that puzzle in 2026 and beyond.
Images courtesy Brooks
