Economic Audit: Brooks Running

Supply Chain & Sourcing Relationships

Brooks Running operates as a footwear and apparel manufacturer, and no evidence was identified linking the company to Israeli agricultural exporters such as Mehadrin, Hadiklaim, Galilee Export, or Agrexco successors. No public evidence identified. Brooks’ disclosed Tier-1 manufacturing footprint, per its TrusTrace-enabled supply-chain transparency programme, comprises factories in Vietnam (9), Indonesia (1), Taiwan (2), the United States (1), El Salvador (1), Peru (1), and the Philippines (1), with no Israel-based Tier-1 or disclosed Tier-2 facility appearing in this footprint ¹. Brooks-brand products sold in Israel are distributed through R.U.N Sports Ltd. (ר.א.ן ספורט בע”מ), an independent Israeli company headquartered in Petah Tikva and described as the official importer of Brooks in Israel; the company was founded by Ronen Bachor, Limor Bachor, and Ilan Benisti, has operated for over 20 years with its first store opened in 2003, also imports the ASSOS and OOFOS brands, and runs roughly 100 point-of-sale retail partnerships alongside six company-operated chain stores and an online store ²³⁴⁵. This is a third-party licensed-distributor arrangement rather than a Brooks/Berkshire-owned subsidiary or joint venture. Brooks product also reaches Israeli consumers indirectly via third-party resellers such as Mashbir//365, which stocks Brooks footwear sourced through the R.U.N Sports import chain rather than via direct Brooks contracts ⁶. Seasonal, produce-style counter-seasonal sourcing patterns are not applicable to the footwear/apparel category, and no evidence identified of such arrangements. No public evidence identified.

Product Origin, Labeling & Regulatory Compliance

No NGO investigation, customs audit, or regulatory citation was identified linking Brooks Running products to “Produce of Israel” mislabeling or settlement-origin goods; the mislabeling issue surfaced in research pertains to Israeli agricultural exporters (Field Produce Marketing, Hadiklaim, Agrifood Marketing) and is unrelated to Brooks. No public evidence identified regarding Brooks specifically. No public evidence identified of a corporate labeling policy addressing occupied-territory sourcing; Brooks’ public responsible-sourcing material addresses leather traceability generally through Leather Working Group Gold-certified, traceability-rated tanneries, with no geography-specific language regarding occupied territories located ⁷.

Investment, Capital & Financial Exposure

No evidence was identified of direct capital investment, acquisitions, factories, data centers, logistics hubs, R&D centres, or real-estate holdings by Brooks Running or Brooks Sports Inc. within Israel or the occupied territories. No public evidence identified. At the parent level, however, Berkshire Hathaway’s Israel exposure is material and distinct from Brooks’ own operations: Berkshire acquired 80% of Iscar Metalworking Companies (IMC), headquartered in Tefen, Israel, in a transaction valuing IMC at $5 billion and completed 5 July 2006 ⁸⁹¹⁰, and acquired the remaining 20% for approximately $2.05 billion in 2013, making Iscar a wholly-owned Berkshire subsidiary from 2013 onward with no divestiture reported ¹¹¹⁰. Berkshire Hathaway, via Warren Buffett personally and via Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies since GUARD’s 2012 acquisition, has held Israel Bonds (Development Corporation for Israel); Buffett has headlined multiple Israel Bonds fundraising events in Omaha, with one report citing $290 million raised over an 18-month period, and Buffett personally holds approximately $5 million in Israel Bonds ¹²¹³¹⁴. Berkshire Hathaway also held a stake in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, an Israeli-headquartered company, beginning in Q4 2017 (18.9 million shares, 1.86%), increasing to 4.2% (approximately 43.25 million shares, roughly $1 billion) by mid-2018 ¹⁵¹⁶, before fully divesting the position between Q1 2020 and Q4 2021 per 13F tracking data ¹⁷. No public evidence identified of Brooks Running-operated R&D facilities, technology partnerships, or accelerator programmes in Israel. No public evidence identified of Brooks-specific disclosed holdings in Israeli-domiciled companies, Israeli sovereign bonds, or Israel-focused funds; all identified exposure sits at the Berkshire Hathaway parent/Buffett personal level rather than as disclosed Brooks Running corporate holdings, and Berkshire’s consolidated FY2023 and FY2025 Form 10-K filings do not surface a Brooks-specific Israel disclosure ¹⁸¹⁹.

Operational Presence & Market Activity

Brooks Running does not appear to operate any company-owned offices, sales operations, support centres, warehouses, or retail locations directly in Israel or the occupied territories; the only retail or operational presence identified runs through the independent third-party distributor R.U.N Sports Ltd. and its network of roughly 100 partner stores plus six company-branded chain stores ²³⁴. No specific store address within a West Bank or Golan Heights settlement was identified in available research; only the Petah Tikva headquarters/logistics-center address was confirmed ³⁴. No public evidence identified of Brooks Running’s own workforce size or tax/regulatory registration status in Israel, as any local employment would sit within the independent distributor rather than Brooks itself. No public evidence identified of Brooks Running or Berkshire Hathaway characterizing the Israeli market in annual reports or investor materials; Brooks is a private operating subsidiary that does not file its own public annual report, and Berkshire’s public filings reviewed did not surface an Israel-market characterization specific to Brooks Running ¹⁸¹⁹.

Corporate Structure & Foundational Ties

Brooks was founded in 1914 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, originally as the M.E. Goldenberg Company / Brooks Shoe Manufacturing Co., Inc., not in Israel ²⁰²¹. Brooks Running’s operational headquarters is in Seattle, Washington, USA, with no dual or legacy Israel headquarters identified ²¹²². Applying an Israeli-Nexus Floor assessment to the Brooks Running entity itself: it was not founded in Israel, its headquarters are not in Israel, no evidence of Israeli tax residency or Preferred Technology Enterprise status was found, and no evidence of beneficial Israeli ownership or control was found - none of these floor factors are triggered for Brooks Running as an entity ²⁰²¹. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s company profile identifies “Brooks Sport” as part of Berkshire Hathaway ²³, and Israel’s Ministry of Economy Invest in Israel portal separately maintains an investor profile page for Berkshire Hathaway ²⁴. At the parent level, Berkshire Hathaway - Brooks’ ultimate parent since 2012 ²³²¹ - wholly owns Iscar Metalworking Companies, an Israeli-headquartered (Tefen) manufacturer acquired in stages in 2006 (80%, approximately $5 billion valuation) and 2013 (remaining 20%, approximately $2.05 billion) ⁸⁹¹¹¹⁰. This is a controlling operating acquisition rather than a passive portfolio stake, and Iscar’s public description is that of an industrial metal-cutting tools manufacturer for general manufacturing use, with no evidence identified of an Iscar-specific IDF or defence-contract nexus ¹⁰. No public evidence identified of Israeli state ownership stakes, government board appointees, Israeli government contracts, or critical-national-infrastructure designation involving Brooks Running. No public evidence identified of golden shares, founder shares, or charter provisions tying Brooks Running’s operations to Israeli state policy objectives.

External watchlist and human-rights database screening: The full text of the Special Rapporteur’s report A/HRC/59/23 (“From economy of occupation to economy of genocide,” 2 July 2025) was directly searched for “Brooks,” “Berkshire Hathaway,” “Iscar,” and footwear-retail terms, and none appear anywhere in the document ²⁵. No public evidence identified of a Who Profits company-profile page for Brooks Running or Berkshire Hathaway, based on indirect web searches (a direct database query was not achievable). The 2023 OHCHR settlement-business database update, covering 158 companies across 11 countries, is described in secondary summaries that do not name Berkshire Hathaway or Brooks ²⁶²⁷. The PAX for Peace “Companies Arming Israel and Their Financiers” report (June 2024) names Boeing, General Dynamics, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Rolls-Royce among arms sellers to Israel and discusses European financial-institution exposure, with no mention of Berkshire Hathaway or Brooks located in available summaries ²⁸. The “Don’t Buy Into Occupation” 2024 coalition report hub was located, but its Annex 1 company-list content was not independently verified for a Berkshire Hathaway or Brooks entry in this research ²⁹³⁰.

Profit Repatriation & Economic Contribution

No public evidence identified of Brooks Running-specific disclosed revenue attributable to the Israeli market; Brooks does not separately disclose country-level revenue, and Berkshire Hathaway’s consolidated FY2023 and FY2025 Form 10-K filings do not contain a Brooks/Israel country-level revenue breakout ¹⁸¹⁹. Based on the R.U.N Sports Ltd. distributor structure, Brooks-brand product sales in Israel would generate distributor margin retained by the independent Israeli company R.U.N Sports Ltd., with wholesale payments flowing from R.U.N Sports Ltd. to Brooks Running in Seattle - an outward flow from Israel to the US parent for wholesale goods, consistent with a standard licensed-distributor import model; this is an inference drawn from the identified corporate structure rather than a disclosed financial statement ²³⁴. No public evidence identified of any government or industry-report designation of Brooks Running as a “key employer” or “sector anchor” within the Israeli economy.

End Notes