Brooks Big Endorsement

The Brooks Big Endorsement Deal encouraged everyday athletes to register and literally “sign with the company.” Making light of competitor shoe companies spending millions for pro athlete endorsements, the Brooks Big Endorsement Deal paid each newly sponsored runner $1. Nearly 58,000 runners became “officially-endorsed” Brooks athletes exceeding the campaign goal of 20,000. 

Design Lead: Nicholas Berry • Designer: Christie Landrie • Copy Lead: Darrah Christel  • Copywriter: Katherine Robinson • Agency Partner: Leo Burnett

Brooks Levitate

It’s hard to imagine there could be much iteration left in the science of running shoes, especially for a company like Brooks that’s been at it for more than 100 years. That being said, they decided to launch a new shoe in the time I was there and needed my team’s help to spread the word. 

The Brooks Levitate was the first shoe to feature the company’s exclusive DNA AMP midsole. Created in partnership with BASF, DNA AMP was a brand new polyurethane (PU)-based cushioning system strategically engineered to provide unparalleled energy return. 

Design Lead: Mark Romney • Designer: Matt Larson • Designer: Sarah Slegh • Copy Lead: Darrah Christel • Copywriter: Katherine Robinson

Brooks Inspiring Coaches

After a few years of the Brooks Inspiring Coaches Program not getting as much love as it should have, our Design Manager Mark Romney decided we needed to breathe new life into it. Working alongside Mark, sports marketing manager Steve Dekoker, designer and photographer Matt Larson, and videographer Paul Lebel, we developed a new content strategy around the event, and were able to honor and highlight the high school coaches who help motivate young runners every day.

Design Lead: Mark Romney • Designer/Photographer: Matt Larson • Videographer: Paul Lebel • Copy Lead: Darrah Christel

Brooks Website Redesign

Even though Brooks was a staple name in the running community, their e-commerce site didn’t instill the same kind of trust. Their pages were inconsistent, lacked UX best practices, and had a poor mobile experience. So I worked with multiple teams and an outside agency partner, Wondersauce, to undergo a complete web redesign.

We started in a simple place. Getting to know how runners buy their gear online. We talked to various runners of different experience levels to gain insight into their purchasing behaviors. Then, we focused on reworking the navigation. Instead of organizing categories by gender, we improved the IA by showing product categories first, so it was clear to the user what we were selling.

By surfacing contextually relevant images within the navigation, users were introduced to key products and enticed to explore further. With just the navigation deployed, we were already seeing progress in sales, with a 6% increase in products added to cart and a 4% increase in sessions with checkout.

Design Lead: Nicholas Berry • Designer: Christie Landrie • Copy Lead: Darrah Christel

Brooks Fall 2017 Catalog

Since this catalog was coming out around the holidays, we wanted it to feel a little different. We wanted to tell stories about individuals that embodied the same values as Brooks. Stories about people who loved the transformative power of the run, and sought to inspire all those around them. We ended up showcasing two running initiatives with distinctly inspiring stories, partnering with the Atlanta-based national organization Black Girls Run and  Seattle-based Peter Kline of Marathons With Meaning. 

I'm especially proud of this project, having negotiated more real estate for storytelling than previous catalogs. I felt strongly that a connection with real people would, in turn, connect people to the brand. The response on social media made it clear: it did.

Design Lead: Nicholas Berry • Art Director: Tarah Kovach • Photographer: Motofish • Photographer: Matt Larson • Copywriter: Darrah Christel