Brooks Running
- Brooks Running CEO Dan Sheridan went from teaching high school to leading a billion-dollar fitness brand.
- Sheridan said he strives to maintain his focus on the human side of the brand.
- He spent over 27 years at Brooks and said mistakes happened when they lost focus on the customer.
Brooks Running CEO Dan Sheridan sits at the helm of a billion-dollar global fitness brand that has over 1,400 employees. His path to the C-suite wasn’t conventional, however.
Sheridan told Business Insider that he grew up in a household of teachers, and when it came time to choose a career, he decided to enter the family business, teaching high school-level physical education, history, and English.
Sheridan said he realized in his 20s that teaching wasn’t his passion, and had a friend working at Brooks Running, which at the time had 52 employees. Sheridan, who picked up running in college, was hired in a field sales and marketing job at the shoe brand, a position now referred to as a “guru.”
He’s been with the company ever since, having worked in nearly every role aside from shoe design during his 27-plus years with the company.
“It’s really a strange thing, the CEO title,” Sheridan said. “Because I think of myself as one of the teammates on Brooks — because I grew up here.”
The CEO said the company is on track to hit $1.6 billion in global sales by the end of this year, after surpassing a billion dollars in global revenue in 2024.
As Sheridan worked his way up to the top role, here’s what he said he learned:
The brand’s biggest mistake
Sheridan said the moments where Brooks strayed its focus away from the customer are the times that the brand made mistakes.
“We’ve made not just flesh wound errors, but significant errors,” Sheridan said.
The CEO said when the pandemic hit, Brooks had a call with his boss, Berkshire Hathaway’s Greg Abel, who reminded him where the company needs to keep its attention.
“He said, ‘We’re going to play the long game here. Just listen to your customer,'” Sheridan said.
Tariffs are one area where that focus has been applied. Sheridan said the shoe brand is bracing for a 100% tariff increase in its imports and has had to make considerations about how it’s going to make up for the cost.
The CEO said the company has decided on price increases of 2% to 3% on its products, which he said “feels very rational and competitive,” considering the tariff rate.
“We don’t want to punish the consumers and dampen demand,” Sheridan said.
Focusing on the human element
As the company navigates tariff uncertainty and grapples with the promise of AI, Sheridan has made an effort not to get bogged down by the noise and maintain his focus on the humans that the brand is ultimately serving.
“Running may be the most human act in sports,” Sheridan said.
While the company plans to leverage AI internally in areas such as workforce productivity and product research and development, Sheridan says they are taking a careful approach to implementing the technology.
“We’re going to be very thoughtful on how we plug in AI and how it impacts our organization,” Sheridan said.
Sheridan strives to remain similarly grounded in his interactions with employees. He said that when the office added plaques with titles to doorposts, Sheridan opted to keep a Post-it note outside his office that simply says “Dan.” The CEO said he doesn’t want his interactions to change because of his title, which he gained about a year and a half ago.
“When people laugh at my jokes, or they return a phone call, they’re returning the title phone call,” Sheridan said. “And for me, this is a relationship business, and so I’m working really hard at staying authentic to my journey at Brooks.”
Sheridan said he’s become “good friends” with some of the customers he’s met throughout his tenure. Managing his ego and flattening power dynamics within the company is something Sheridan said he works “really hard” to achieve, he said.
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