In this episode of the Sport Lifestyle Podcast, we speak with Luke Rowe, Senior Vice President at CEP Compression. Luke cut his teeth working in run and tennis specialty retail, later jumping out of airplanes with the 82nd Airborne. Following the Army, Luke joined Brooks Sports, working his way up to VP of Sales. Luke would make one more stop at Fleet Feet to lead business development before joining CEP.
Podcast Highlights
9:07 – Compression market: “Compression came into the marketplace as a fad. You know, the socks part of it. It really was more faddish, people wore them, but I don’t think people really understood the benefits and then it sort of began to fade.”
13:20 – Luke’s experience with CEP Socks: “You start to realize the massive benefits to wearing compression, it’s how quickly you can recover from really strenuous activity, which then allows you to do the activity more often.”
“I’m almost 60, hate to say that, and I’m running with a bunch of guys who are a lot younger than I am, but I’m running two or so minutes faster.”
16:41 – Products helping longevity in exercising: “The product today is so good. You can literally start running now and take care of yourself so well with better shoes and better things like socks and all of the advancements that have been made.”
22:04 – Future of retail in running: “I don’t know what the attrition rate will be, but I do think you’re going to see some fallout of retailers.”
27:46 – Retail stores expanding their business to activity: “I think it’s a brilliant idea if somebody can figure out how to pull it off. Without that pressure, that shoes sale just dictates everything in a running store. How do you manage to develop all that?“
30:21 – Story about Meb: “What I’m amazed with Meb is his ability to recall a face and a story associated with that face. People would wave at him and stop him and say hello. And then they’d see Meb three years later at the Boston Marathon and they’d stop him again and go “you probably don’t remember me.” And he goes, “Oh Tampa! You were running down this road.” I don’t know how he does that, but I think it’s an insight into who he is as a man and a person that he is somebody that loves life and he loves people and it matters to him.”
