Brooks Kicks Out Customers

Brooks has made a huge mistake in an attempt to clean things up.

In an attempt to be all things to all people they have lost their loyal followers. They have lost all the things that many of us loved about Brooks.

I heard through a friend of a friend that Hansons are leaving as well.

I was a member of Brooks ID for a few years and I did nothing to further their cause from a marketing stand point. I was far from elite but had a few good results locally and never actually wore the singlet. I think people miss the point that Brooks ID has nothing to do about how good of a runner you are, but how much exposure you generate for the company. Sure the members all felt like they were elite runners with some special membership, but anybody could really join. I think it was smart for Brooks to dump the current ID program since most of its members were just in it for the 40% off shoes. I think most of the elite runners have no problem finding a real sponsorship.

Brooks screwed themselves wrote:

Brooks has made a huge mistake in an attempt to clean things up.

In an attempt to be all things to all people they have lost their loyal followers. They have lost all the things that many of us loved about Brooks.

I heard through a friend of a friend that Hansons are leaving as well.

LMFAO!! Yet another Turd in the punchbowl. You know very little if you think a handful of jaded runners will cause them to lose their loyal followers. In my area alone there are 5 runners who were IDers. One is still on ID, the rest were put on the new Fanatics. They all think all the Turds are making complete asses of themselves.

Looks like at least 1 former loyal follower is gone.

Brooks screwed themselves wrote:

I heard through a friend of a friend that Hansons are leaving as well.

Nope.

Hansons will not leave Brooks. As a sales rep for a competing company (not Mizuno), I can tell you that they are happy with Brooks.

One basic point about the profitability of the program: even if they covered their average variable cost, there are massive fixed costs in the running shoe biz. Even accounting for lost sales, Brooks will make more money if it doesn't offer a 40% discount. Those lost profits are a marketing expense, and it may be that their research suggested that they were not getting a return on the marketing.

After hearing many of these anecdotes about disloyal or otherwise poorly-behaving ID members, it seems likely that the group was simply too large to manage. When you're trying to cut down a group to a specific size, it's inevitable that quality people will get cut and that theye will feel a little down about losing a benefit. Yet, if the program had made good business sense, don't you think other shoe companies would have followed suit?

All I know is that no shoe company besides Brooks would have given me any benefits whatsoever (unless I joined one of their teams or clubs). There were also many, many ID members who wouldn't even have been fast enough to join such a team. Good for Brooks for taking a chance and helping out a lot of runners in the process, even if it only lasted for a few years.

800 dude wrote:

One basic point about the profitability of the program: even if they covered their average variable cost, there are massive fixed costs in the running shoe biz. Even accounting for lost sales, Brooks will make more money if it doesn't offer a 40% discount. Those lost profits are a marketing expense, and it may be that their research suggested that they were not getting a return on the marketing.

I agree with many of your points, but you're quite wrong about the 40% discount costing Brooks money. I contend that they make significantly more money from ID members than they would from selling to running stores.

I posted these figures earlier in this thread, but here goes again. A store will pay approximately $50 wholesale for a $100 pair of shoes. Brooks sells the same shoe to an ID member for $60. There is a slight overhead cost for the "pro deal" website, but it is negligible, especially when you consider there is a handling change attached to every order.

Now your average runner is going to buy more pairs of shoes at $60 than at $100. So in essence Brooks is making more money off of ID members, although they are doing so at the expense of their retail accounts, who won't see as many customers. Too many ID members (especially if they are all clumped in one area) and you're upsetting the retailers. That may be one reason for the "great de-IDing of 2011."

your name here wrote:

Please pay attention. The program did not end.

It has for the OP

Cost on a $100 pair of shoes is is $57.75 plus shipping.

All of you ID members past and present should be saying "thank you very much" to Brooks. The standard for getting even one free pair of shoes a year should be a 15 min. 5k, 31 min. 10k, 1:09 HM and 2:26 marathon. Those standards alone would eliminate 90% of you. Not to mention the wankers who got the free shoes from Brooks and tried to trade them in for other brands. If you need a new team go talk to your local running store and see if you can get on their team. Brooks, by the way, sponsors or supports a ton of store's racing teams.

well i am/was (not sure yet) id runner but i tried my best to show off the brand by racing.

I'm not a distance guy so road races aren't really something i partake in. i'm a mid distance guy with pr's of 1:50 and 4:08 (mile). I've only raced the mile a few times but plan on making it my primary event.

I'm curious if i get my mile time down to say 4:02-04 could i legitimately contact brooks about some sort of contract. even if its just a gear deal with small incentives ( meet entry fees, free package of gear/shoe/spike etc. )

i'm new to post-collegiate running so sorry if my questions are ones that seem like i should already know.

what about mid d wrote:

well i am/was (not sure yet) id runner but i tried my best to show off the brand by racing.

I'm not a distance guy so road races aren't really something i partake in. i'm a mid distance guy with pr's of 1:50 and 4:08 (mile). I've only raced the mile a few times but plan on making it my primary event.

I'm curious if i get my mile time down to say 4:02-04 could i legitimately contact brooks about some sort of contract. even if its just a gear deal with small incentives ( meet entry fees, free package of gear/shoe/spike etc. )

i'm new to post-collegiate running so sorry if my questions are ones that seem like i should already know.

I'm a 3:59 - 4:00 guy and asked a similar question (about travel for national level meets), hoping to 'move up the ladder' so to speak. I was told that wasn't in the budget unless I ran a world-class time.

Considering the availability of funding in this sport I was completely fine with it and still pretty excited just to have ANY gear deal, even if it wasn't necessarily given based on my performance on the track. And I love the Brooks brand, so it's a win all-around for me and I hope they feel like they're getting their money out of me so I can keep going.

So it's worth a shot, but I wouldn't bank on it.

Well done Brooks for a program that no one else has done, I think it's great for us lower-level runners that have some influence in their local running scene. I hope the jaded [turds] don't leave a bad taste in the collective Brooks mouth about all of us that love the program and support we wouldn't get anywhere else.

Why did the program fail? Mary Kay, Scentsy Candles, Lia Sophia, Candlelite, Pampered Chef, and many other companies have done similar programs and they seem to be doing really well. Was it bad management?

It was a program that undermined the local running stores. It was a stupid program that took away customers and made both Brooks and their vendors have headaches and lose money. The people in the ID program did very little to promote Brooks, which has done a lot for the sport and for these athletes.

Go to Shoe. wrote:

It was a program that undermined the local running stores. It was a stupid program that took away customers and made both Brooks and their vendors have headaches and lose money. The people in the ID program did very little to promote Brooks, which has done a lot for the sport and for these athletes.

You're so full of shit, unless your local running shop had 40+ ID members go from store customers to ID members, you are stoned.

How many shoe buying customers are their nation wide? You're telling me 2000 "wannabe fake elites" around the country undermines Specialty stores? PAHHHLLLLLEEEEEEEZZZZ.

Go to any jog fest Rock N Roll even, go to any mid size marathon, large marathon, look at their feet, are you telling me that everyone wearing Brooks is an ID member?

Besides, Brooks isn't even the top seller in specialty stores across the country.

The sense of entitlement some of you people have is amazing. Brooks was trying to do a good thing and it got out of control. It is really difficult to prove that even sponsoring elite runners help sell running shoes let alone sponsoring local heroes. Look at Adidas, they sponsor a ton of elite runners and have about 2% of the specialty running shoe business nationally. The one thing you are right about is that Brooks is not the top seller in specialty stores across the country but they are a strong number two and gaining rapidly on number one. I encourage any of you who were cut from the ID program to contact any of the other major (or minor ) brands and see what they offer runners of your caliber. Heck, I remember when Wejo was running 28 minutes for the 10,000 and didn't have a sponsor.

Don't bring Wejos' history into this. He's a conservative and believes when people work harder than others, they deserve it more over those who did less. I sent in a list of names of many runners that I got to switch from Nike to Brooks. Runners that were buying Nike's from online sites and now are buying Brooks from online sites. The specialty store in this town does nothing for the community.

Giving something is risky because taking away causes problems. Instead of being greatful for whatever Brooks offered, people are complaining because it is being taken away. As stated, no other company has offered such a great grass roots program, yet now people are angry because Brooks took something away. It sounds like they were very generous and now might be changing the program to ensure a fair return on their business investment.