Bryan Poerner: Building a Rebellious Running Brand, Redefining Diadora, and Putting Community Before Scale

THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Dominic Schlueter

Running, Sports

4.9 • 821 Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do you build a running shoe brand that feels rebellious, authentic, and different in a market dominated by giants?

For Bryan Poerner, President & CEO of Diadora USA, the answer lies in blending a punk-inspired do-it-yourself ethos with Italian craftsmanship and a deep respect for the running community.

From his roots as a Division III steeplechaser to leading Diadora’s return to the U.S. performance market, Bryan’s journey has been anything but conventional.

His path is marked by defining career highlights. In 1998–1999, he set the Stockton University steeplechase record (9:31.0) while completing his business degree. He then spent more than a decade at PUMA, rising from regional specialty sales to managing national accounts, before channeling his entrepreneurial side in 2007 to launch TRKFLD, a Philadelphia-based accessories brand.

Under his leadership, Diadora has transformed from a heritage name with history into an edgy new player in the run-specialty world. In November 2023, he made national headlines by pushing profit-sharing as a model for the future of runspecialty.

Rather than chasing mass-market share, Bryan and his team have doubled down on a “best, not biggest” philosophy that prioritizes authenticity and community over volume. Today, Diadora under his guidance represents not just a heritage brand reborn, but a bold challenger reshaping the future of running.

In today's conversation, Bryan takes me deep into the process of helping to build Diadroa and his background in the sport in DIII. We dive into trying to build the next great running shoe company and how and why it's centered around performance.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	personally with your family.
0:02.1	The things you're, Dominic, the very questions you bought up before, right?
0:05.6	Like, hey, I want to make sure I'm balancing what I want to have a family and these other things.
0:10.2	Dude, you don't build Apple without sacrificing that stuff.
0:14.7	And I don't know if I look up to those guys.
0:17.0	I don't know if I, I, that blind passion without the, the mental check you put on yourself
0:24.0	at the beginning of the podcast, I don't know if I value that sort of stuff.
0:30.5	That was Brian Porter today on the Running Effect podcast. I have the privilege of speaking
0:34.5	with the president and CEO of Deodora, Brian.
0:43.6	And today's conversation was an excellent opportunity to dive into the makings and the success and the journey of trying to create a one-of-a-kind running shoe company, running shoe brand.
0:48.7	Brian dives deep into Deodora, his background with the brand, becoming the CEO, why he believes in it, why they put
0:55.2	performance first signing their first ever NIL athlete, Marco Langan, then stories behind that,
1:00.0	stories behind revolutionizing a spike in what that process has looked like.
1:04.2	And we also dive into some deep philosophical talk around success and sustainability and how
1:09.8	to live a wholesome holistic life while balancing
1:13.8	and juggling a bunch of different things. This is a really fun conversation with Brian. We hit it off
1:18.1	right away and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did having it. If you do, consider giving
1:21.9	us a follow or subscribe wherever you listen so that you don't miss more conversations like this
1:26.6	in the future. Take five seconds. Give us a five-star review and the last thing. Share the episode miss more conversations like this in the future.
1:28.3	Take five seconds.
1:29.2	Give us a five-star review.
1:31.0	And the last thing, share the episode with a friend.
	...

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