Brooks Running dropped cheap shoes in 2001, bet everything on serious runners, and won

When Jim Weber joined Brooks as CEO in 2001, the 87-year-old brand was on the brink of bankruptcy: losing money, carrying heavy debt, and overdistributed across every athletic category, including 'good-better-best' family footwear starting at $30 it was losing money on. Its biggest customer, Big 5 Sporting Goods — a $10M account out of roughly $60M in total sales — was pushing it toward $19.99 price points.

Weber made the defining call: Brooks was 'not a low-cost producer, not a high-volume footwear player,' so it would exit that space entirely. He walked away from the cheap-shoe business and rebuilt the company around its two credible technical running shoes, the Beast and the Addiction, targeting serious runners through specialty retail. Internally, staff had a pool on how long he would last. The mantra was profit before growth.

The focus paid off. Brooks grew sales and share every year for Weber's first eight years, hit No. 1 in Leisure Trends' independent running-channel sales ranking in 2011 — only the third brand in 30 years to do so — and reached $500M in sales in 2014, up from $180M in 2010. After a 2009 wake-up call when rivals piled into running, Weber deliberately halved profitability to invest over $12M in R&D, innovation, and marketing to lead the category.

Ownership followed the performance: Brooks was sold to Berkshire Hathaway's Fruit of the Loom in 2006, and in 2011–2012 Warren Buffett elevated it to a standalone Berkshire subsidiary, praising it in his 2011 shareholder letter for 'gobbling up market share.'

From ~$60M in money-losing sales in 2001 to $500M in 2014, No. 1 in the US specialty running channel by 2011, and a standalone Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary.

Weber deliberately shrank the business — exiting his largest account's price-driven segment — to rebuild margins before chasing growth.

Focusing on one niche where the brand already had authentic credibility (motion-control running shoes) beat competing everywhere badly.

Profitability first created the cash and credibility to later invest heavily in R&D and marketing from a position of strength.

The turnaround attracted Warren Buffett, who made Brooks a standalone Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary — a rare endorsement of a footwear brand.

Brooks became only the third brand in 30 years to top the US specialty running channel, proving a focused specialist can beat multi-sport giants in their own category.

When you can't win as a low-cost generalist, exit the volume game entirely: pick the one niche where you already have credibility, serve it better than anyone, and let profit come before growth.

Brooks kept compounding under Berkshire's patient ownership. It passed $500M in sales in 2014, expanded into Europe, Japan, Korea, and Australia, and Buffett told Footwear News the company's second hundred years would be the best 'particularly if you have Jim Weber running things.' Brooks added a Buffett-sponsored 5K to the Berkshire shareholder weekend and eventually surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue, remaining the run-specialty market leader; Weber led the company for over two decades before stepping down in 2024.