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Diversity, equity & inclusion at Brooks

Side view of two people walking next to building wearing Brooks black jackets

Our approach

The run is who we are. At Brooks, we believe in the power and kinetic joy of the run. This fuels our passion for the sport and the running community. The shoes and gear we develop, the experiences we create, and the partnerships we build should help make the run inclusive and accessible for all. We are taking a comprehensive and strategic approach to ensure our values are represented in our sport. We are committed to reducing barriers to participation in the run, the running industry, and the running community.

Four runners on a gravel path on a sunny day

Our diversity, equity & inclusion efforts are guided by three objectives:

1

Workplace

Build a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace.

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2

Runners

Welcome and engage diverse runners.

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3

Run community

Directly engage with our communities to foster diversity and inclusion in running.

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Workplace

Start at home by ensuring a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace.

We believe in the power of diversity that includes people of different races/ethnicities, national origins, abilities, genders, ages, sexual orientation, body types and circumstances. We are pursuing practices that will achieve equity in our business and our sport — so everyone feels a sense of belonging as their own, authentic self.

Group of Brooks employees EMEA

Our commitments*:

  • Achieve at least 50% women representation at all levels of Brooks employees in Europe
  • Achieve at least 25% female representation on director level
  • Attain at least 40% female representation on managerial level
  • Maintain at least 4.0 out of 5.0 Inclusive Culture Score on Brooks employee Cultural Strengths Survey
  • Maintain Human Rights Campaign Foundation's "Corporate Equality Index" score of 100/100

*All diversity, equity and inclusion commitments apply to the EMEA only

Gender demographics

At Brooks, we are focusing on growing women leadership in our workplace through hiring practices and our leadership and career development programmes. We aim to create a healthy pipeline of gender-balanced talent to help lead Brooks.

Racial demographics

As a global company, we recognise the uniqueness of racial diversity in the European context. We strive to ensure that our European workforce reflects the diversity of the European population. We collect and analyse data on the racial diversity of our workforce at each level of our organisation as we work towards achieving racial equity among historically underrepresented groups.

Corporate Equality Index

We’ve made big strides in our commitment to equality and in evolving our organisation’s policies and practices to be equitable and inclusive. Our efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have been recognised by the national Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI). Our annual participation in the CEI — the nation’s premier benchmarking survey and report measuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) policies and practices in the workplace — is a way to keep ourselves accountable to our DEI goals and to track how we’re doing. The CEI score is determined by three main criteria: workforce protections, inclusive benefits and supporting an inclusive culture and corporate social responsibility.

Pay equity

Brooks began incorporating pay equity analysis into our hiring, promotion and compensation processes in 2018. During offers and our annual compensation reviews, we analyse pay equity across employees in similar roles within our organisation.

Inclusive culture

Brooks is committed to maintaining a workplace culture where everyone feels a sense of belonging and each person’s uniqueness is valued. We contribute to this through our various employee programmes, including Mentorship, Leader-Led Training, Connect Manager Training, Unconscious Bias Training, New Employee Orientation, Brooks Buddy, the DEI Speaker Series, Book Club, Employee Awards, and Employee Resource Groups. On an annual basis, Brooks conducts an employee Cultural Strengths Survey to assess our culture. One area of focus within the assessment is “inclusive environment”, which is rated on a 5-point scale. We also do an overall review of our organisation’s annual inclusion scores by demographic cohort to ensure there are no significant disparities between dominant and historically underrepresented groups.

Runners

Ensure representation of all who run.

Brooks commits to tell stories through a diverse set of runners and celebrate the power of the run to bring people together.

Representation in:

Marketing

With a focus on racial, gender and LGBTQ+ diversity, Brooks recognises the importance of representation, and we believe our marketing should reflect all who run. We work to diversify our model casting in photography and videos, our influencer and athlete teams, and our campaign partners. As we continue to track our marketing demographic data, we will learn and build on this foundation to advance representation on the run.

Product wear testing & consumer insights

We want to make sure each run is better than the last – a simple enough principle that guides every design and engineering choice we make. These decisions are brought to life on the unique, real-world humans who wear our gear. Our success is the result of tireless research with runners of every shape, strength, and experience. We value runners’ unique experiences and perspectives and seek to ensure we incorporate the most diverse group of runners possible as we develop our gear.

Run community

Drive change in the run community by fostering diversity and inclusion in running

Brooks engages directly with our community by building partnerships with industry organisations that advance DEI, through our community impact programmes that support teams and organisations advancing health and well-being through the power of the run, and by increasing diversity and inclusion.

Marathon Kids

Our commitments:

  • Dedicate more than US$5M per year in cash and gear to social impact programmes
  • Focus on partnerships that make the benefits of the run accessible to everyone

Future Run

Future Run

Brooks works to create as many opportunities as possible for young people to discover the lifelong benefits of the run and its powerful community.

Community partnerships

Running has the power to build community and effect positive change. Brooks helps to strengthen our community partners through sponsorships, financial support and gear donations, so together we can champion the run for all.