🎤 From All-American Runner to Running Retail’s Most Restless Builder: Ben Cooke at Marathon Sports

Ben Cooke, President of Marathon Sports, has spent 25 years building things inside companies he didn’t own — then lost everything trying to build something that was truly his. Along the way he helped create Fleet Feet’s corporate retail arm, launched their e-commerce platform, built an On Running program that became 8% of On’s global business, and is now turning a 30-location New England specialty retailer into a trail running brand with global ambitions.

✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:

• Competitive athletics as the foundation for a business career driven by daily PRs

• Running Princeton Running Company as a de facto entrepreneur for 11 years under a Koch Industries executive

• Selling to Finish Line and stepping into a national roll-up role without M&A experience

• Transitioning from owned retail to franchising and why the cultures require entirely different instincts

• Building Fleet Feet’s e-commerce, Amazon business, and distribution center from scratch

• The On Running partnership that took them from zero to hundreds of thousands of pairs

• Acquiring Marathon Sports in 2022 and growing from 18 to 32 locations in four years

• Trail running as a flywheel — races, field trips, and dirt camps building the customer of tomorrow

• Why win-win-win is the only deal structure worth pursuing

• Losing everything on two outdoor stores in Colorado and what the failure actually taught him

🌟 Ben’s Key Mentors:

• Princeton Running Company founder: modeled entrepreneurial decision-making at the local level, inspired by Koch Industries’ market-based management philosophy — without ever naming it

• Fleet Feet leadership: gave him room to innovate across every department and scale concepts from zero

• Podcasts (Founders, Acquired): a daily MBA on the commute, replacing incidental mentorship with intentional learning from the best business minds in history

• His own failures: the Colorado outdoor stores taught him that systems and teams — not individual toughness — are what allow entrepreneurs to flourish

👉 Don’t miss this conversation about building something from inside someone else’s company, the specific deal structure that turned On Running into a powerhouse, and what it feels like to lose everything you put in and still say you’d do it again.

🔗 Connect with Ben Cooke:

Website: marathonsports.com

📤 Transcript Available: Ben Cooke Turned 18 Running Stores Into a Trail Running Movement with Marathon Sports

📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast

🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast

📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com