Brooks Pride Article

Brooks Running InsideTrack Article

Article written for Brooks Running
DEI InsideTrack (Brooks intranet)

Brooks Running, June 2023

Image: Brooks InsideTrack

In June 2023, I pitched an article idea celebrating Pride and Brooks’ commitment to “champion the run for all” to the Brooks Internal Communications team to feature on the DEI section of InsideTrack, the Brooks intranet. I wrote the article based on my experience in the 2023 Seattle Pride Parade as part of Brooks’ contingent, tying my experience to the Brooks values (Runner first, Word is bond, Champion heart, There is no “I” in run, & Keep moving). I also reflected upon my upbringing in a religious conservative family and how Brooks served (and continues to serve) as a beacon of light due to their Run Proud collection.

After submitting the first draft, I worked with the Internal Communications Content Lead on copyedits. The article was published on June 29, 2023. It received 185 views, 32 likes, and 4 original comments.

Read the full article below:

An LGBTQ+ Teammate Finds Pride Through Brooks’ Inclusive Culture
Published June 29, 2023 on Brooks Running InsideTrack (internal website)

“Ready. Set. Go!!!”

It’s probably like the 10th time we’ve sprinted, and I’m out of breath and regretting not starting my Garmin to track all of this, but hearing the crowd cheer us on hasn’t gotten old. There are even a few random individuals who jumped in and joined our group. They choose to run with us every time we sprint, showing off the Run Happy spirit for the masses of people lining Fourth Avenue.

It’s warm, with the sun beating down on us, and every moment we pass into the shadow of buildings brings sweet relief. Nearly everyone along the street is waving a rainbow flag or wearing one, or both.

As I’ve been reminded over and over again for the past 25 days of living in Seattle, I’m not in Indiana anymore. Today — Sunday, June 25 — I am marching in the Seattle Pride Parade with about 50 other Brooks employees, friends, and family members, accompanied by the Seattle Frontrunners, an LGBTQ+ running and walking group.

We make our way from downtown toward Seattle Center, the Space Needle serving as a symbol of the city and now also a symbol of unity as the Progress Pride flag billows from its mast. It’s not that Indiana — where I moved from — doesn’t celebrate Pride. But, as you might be able to imagine, Indiana doesn’t celebrate Pride like this, like Seattle does.

Indiana is my home state, which means it’s also home to all the highs and lows of growing up, some of my best friends, as well as my traumas, my insecurities, my stories of growth, and enough healing to have brought me here to Seattle. Indiana is where I had to hide, but also where I came out as lesbian. And it’s where I started my career with Brooks just over a year ago, in a remote role as a Runner Experience Specialist with the Runner Experience Direct-to-Runner (REx DTR) team.

A Kinship with Run Happy

My ties to Brooks go back before I started working here, from running the 2018 Chicago Marathon in Adrenalines to navigating family dinner conversations about the company’s social activism while I was still closeted. My dad boycotted Brooks for being “woke” — for speaking out in support for the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities.

Little did he know that the support and inclusivity Brooks was conveying was something I desperately needed to see. I wasn’t a Brooks employee yet, but by truly championing the run for all, the organization helped me feel a kinship with the brand and the people behind the activism.

I could see the brand values in action — Runner First, Word Is Bond, Champion Heart, There’s No “I” in Run, and Keep Moving — even if I didn’t know them at the time. I couldn’t buy anything from the first Run Proud collection. I still lived at home, and even a rainbow, which meant I was like “those people,” would be threatening to my parents. But I saw Brooks celebrating all who love. I knew Brooks was standing up for me and those like me, even if we couldn’t stand up for ourselves.

I know that a perspective of our company — that Brooks is “woke” and sells products celebrating the LGBTQ+ community only as a way to “pander to the left” – still exists broadly. Part of my role, after all, is to basically listen and respond to what people think of Brooks. And I, along with the rest of my REx DTR teammates, hear a full spectrum of opinions and experience a breadth of how terrible human beings can be to one another, but also how wonderful.

Go Out, and Be Wonderful

Today as we approach Seattle Center, I am reminded of how wonderful we can be to each other. I’ve come a long way since the days of admiring the Run Proud collection from, quite literally, afar. With the Space Needle getting closer, we sprint one last time, giving every last ounce of energy for the spectators near the end of the route.

And then, just like that, we’ve reached the finish line and disperse into little groups to continue to celebrate Pride and what it means today and what it should mean every day. We go out, and we are wonderful to each other.