Jim Weber, CEO of Brooks Running, talked with host Kai Ryssdal, about running shoes and the cyclical trends of the running shoe industry for the Marketplace series: “Conversations from the Corner Office”.

On what makes a Brooks Shoe special:

Well, you know, running is a repetitive motion and, for most people, on asphalt. The trail is a fabulous place to be, but not everyone has access to trails. So most people run on asphalt. And, if you think about carpal tunnel on a keyboard all day, anything you do for 30, 40, 60 minutes, an hour, couple hours, mechanics matter. So, Brooks, literally, for 50 years has been leading in the biomechanics of human motion as it relates to running and I would say not every shoe is a great shoe. And I think frequent runners that put in a lot of mileage figure that out.

On running seeming to have a cyclical trend:

You know, I don’t buy that. I think the cycles that come through every category of athletic footwear and apparel, there’s a fashion element to it. There’s a casual, fashion lifestyle in terms of the uniform that people wear when they go to get their Starbucks coffee. But, you know, running is timeless, it’s always been. 40 to 50 million people in the US, you can more than double that globally, that run for fitness. There’s cycles in the active lifestyle where people try different things. They might run more, they might go to the gym more. That’s always been there, but running is timeless.

You can find more interviews from this series here: Conversations from the Corner Office.

Click the audio player above to hear the full interview.