More than 100 years ago, Seattle-based Brooks Running actually made ice skates. While there’s no intention of getting back into that line of business, the company is announcing a new partnership with the Seattle Kraken as official supplier of off-ice footwear and apparel for the NHL franchise.
In the multi-year deal — terms of which were not disclosed — Brooks replaces Adidas in outfitting Kraken players, coaches and staff for their training needs. Brooks will also support the team as needed through the high-tech Run Research Lab that it operates at its headquarters building on the north end of Lake Union.
On Wednesday, Kraken goalie Joey Daccord, who will serve as a player ambassador in the partnership, was put through the paces on a treadmill in the lab. An avid runner and longtime Brooks customer now in his sixth NHL season, Daccord helped demonstrate how biomechanics and athlete insights are used to not only inform the development of products, but also aid in training efficiency and injury reduction.
A team of about 25 Brooks employees works in the lab, where infrared motion-capture cameras ring the ceiling and assess athlete movement via small sensors stuck to various points on the athlete’s body. At one point, Daccord jogged at a steady pace for about two minutes while wearing a metabolic mask to test his VO2 max capacities.
Pete Humphrey, head of research and development at Brooks, said everything at Brooks has to be grounded in science with the goal of making athletes better and helping them enjoy the run.
“In the beginning, we had a little insole we put in a shoe. The lab was located in the same room with our printer/copier machine,” Humphrey said. “We’ve grown it into what is today one of the one of the most state-of-the-art facilities. This is the foundation of all product we build.”
The treadmills in the lab are running about 300 days out of the year, sometimes with high-level athletes like Daccord or members of the Brooks professional team, or with ordinary runners and walkers. Each product goes through anywhere from three to seven iterations, depending on the innovation involved.
Data coming off the treadmill might help engineer a shoe midsole so that it works best with an athlete’s body. Cushioning, energy, return, release, and support information is all used to build a shoe from the athlete up, versus just putting a shoe on a runner and hoping it works.
“It’s all about the athlete from start to end,” said Jennifer Sumner, director of run research at Brooks. “That’s going to be understanding how they’re moving from the outside, and then what’s actually happening inside their body as well.”
Following the demonstration with Daccord in the lab, Brooks and the Kraken held a post-game “press conference” higher up in the HQ building. Joined by more than 100 Brooks employees, Brooks CEO Dan Sheridan and Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke discussed their appreciation for each others’ brand and their excitement about working together and serving the community.
Sheridan, who has been at Brooks since 1998, assumed the CEO role six months ago, succeeding Jim Weber, who spent more than 20 years in the top job.
Leiweke, a lifelong runner with seven marathons and a few Mount Rainier climbs under his belt, said he was looking forward to wearing his Brooks gear at Kraken games.
“We get to wear not just a shoe we believe is trustworthy and all of those things, it’s a shoe we’re proud of, because you have a culture here that is so unique and so special,” Leiweke said.
Started in 1914 in Philadelphia, Brooks is the oldest American sporting goods company in the U.S. The company made its move to the Northwest in 1993 and to its current location along the Burke-Gilman Trail on the Fremont-Wallingford border 10 years ago. The company now employs 550 people in Seattle and 1,400 worldwide, and will occupy part of a second building being built next door.
A subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Brooks reported record revenue in the second quarter, up 15% year-over-year. It has the highest market share in the adult performance running footwear market for U.S. retail. The company said its e-commerce revenue grew 22% year-over-year in the first quarter.
Brooks-Kraken-branded gear will eventually make its way into team pro shops for fans to purchase. And Brooks branding will also show up in Climate Pledge Arena and during televised games, via digital displays.
So why pair a longtime running brand and a 3-year-old pro hockey team?
“Run is at the center of every performance athlete’s training — doesn’t matter what sport you’re in,” Sheridan said. “What we know as a universal truth is that athletes choose to run for their training, and the biggest fear that an athlete has is injury. So we spend every waking hour on the biomechanics of human motion, the kinesiology and physiology of how to make a run better for the athletes.”
