Reebok
about reebok
Back in time
Reebok’s history goes way back to the 1890s when Englishman J.W. Foster set up an athletic footwear company of the same name. Foster would go on to create one of the world’s first track spike shoes. In 1924 British runner Harold Abrahams wore a pair of J.W. Foster and Sons running shoes for his 100m race at the Paris Olympics – and won gold. In 1958 Foster senior passed the baton to his two grandsons Joe and Jeff who started to develop their own athletic footwear lines. Looking for inspiration for a new company name, they turned to South Africa and selected the name "Reebok", Afrikaans for the grey rhebok, a type of African antelope.
Sneakers & Lifestyle
Reebok was one of the first footwear companies to create a new kind of running sneaker featuring leather and track spikes in their sports shoes. England continued to be the company’s production base until the brand was discovered by an American investor, Paul Fireman, in 1979. Reebok’s growth began to accelerate and it made the breakthrough to new markets. From the1980s the fitness trend really started to take off. “Let’s get physical” and no, I’m not referring to Dua Lipa’s new song from Future Nostalgia, This was the decade where aerobics went through the roof and so did Reebok’s growth. The family business expanded from running spikes to offering a wide range of sports shoes designed for athletes and fitness junkies. The early 1980s saw the debut of the Reebok Freestyle, a first of its kind athletic shoe for women. The company initially wanted to keep their focus on running sneakers, but then took a leap of faith with the Reebok Classic Leather sneaker to see what kind of response they would get from consumers for their new casual footwear. The gamble paid off! Later on in the ‘80s, the sneaker giant branched out with a clothing and sports accessory line to add its already successful range of sneakers.
Collabs
In 1995 Reebok took another bold move by making a sneaker in collaboration with the NBA star Shaquille O’Neal creating the ‘Reebok Shaqnosis’ basketball shoe, which again turned out to be a big success. Reebok continued to make collaborations with NBA and WNBA team players in the early 2000s, which increasingly helped improve the sneaker giant’s brand awareness. In 2003 Reebok released their first ever collab with a non-athlete, the sneaker giant released the ‘S Carter’ collection with Jay Z. Two years later Adidas took over the family business Reebok in a deal taken for approximately $3.5 billion. Ten years later Reebok paid tribute to Keith Haring by releasing the iconic “Classic Leather” sneaker that incorporates Haring’s vibrant and bold color choice, as seen on his ‘Barking Dogs’ artwork. Many people have recently started to become brand ambassadors for Reebok, to attract a younger audience like Gen Z and millennials. Some of Reeboks brand ambassadors include celebrities like rapper Kendrick Lamar, worldwide supermodel Gigi Hadid, pop singer Ariana Grande, to name but a few.