Reebok
Past campaigns and recommendations for future campaigns
Brand overview-
Reebok International Limited is an American (formerly English) footwear and apparel
company, and a Independent subsidiary of German sporting goods giant Adidas since 2005.
Reebok produces and distributes fitness, running and CrossFit sportswear including clothing
and footwear. It is the official footwear and apparel sponsor for Ultimate Fighting
Championship (UFC), CrossFit, and Spartan Race.
In 1958, Reebok was established as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, founded
in 1895 in Bolton, Lancashire, England. From 1958 until 1986, all Reebok apparel featured
the Union Flag, to signify the company's British origins. The Union Flag is featured on
Reebok's "Classic" line of apparel.
The company's global headquarters are located in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., with regional
offices in Amsterdam, Montreal, Hong Kong, and Mexico City.
Current logo
Early history
In 1895, Joseph William Foster at the age of 14 started work in his bedroom above his
father's sweatshop in Bolton, England, and designed some of the earliest spiked running
shoes. After his ideas progressed, he founded his business 'J.W. Foster' in 1900, later he
joined with his sons and changed the company name to J.W. Foster and Sons. Foster opened
a small factory called Olympic Works, and gradually became famous among athletes for his
"running pumps". For pioneering the use of spikes, the company's revolutionary running
pumps appear in the book, Golden Kicks: The Shoes that changed Sport. The company began
distributing shoes across the Union Jack flag which were worn by British athletes. They were
made famous by 100m Olympic champion Harold Abrahams (who would be immortalised in
the Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire) in the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris.
In 1958, in Bolton, two of the founder's grandsons, Joe and Jeff Foster, formed a companion
company "Reebok," having found the name in a South African dictionary won in a running
race by Joe Foster as a boy. The name is Afrikaans for the grey rhebok, a type of African
antelope.
In 1979, at the Chicago International Sneaker Trade show an American businessman, Paul
Fireman, took notice of Reebok. Fireman was working for team sports and negotiated a deal
to license and distribute the Reebok brand in the United States. The division was called
Reebok USA Ltd. Later that year, Fireman introduced three new shoes to the market at $60.
By 1981, Reebok reached more than $1.5 million in sales.
In 1982, Reebok debuted the Reebok Freestyle aerobics shoe,
the first athletic shoe designed for women. Fitness professional Gin Miller became the face of
"Step Reebok," the company's aerobics fitness campaign and program. The following year,
Reebok's sales were $13 million.
Ryan Giggs in his Reebok Sprintfit football boots. The former Manchester United winger signed an
endorsement with Reebok in the early 1990s
The company began expanding from tennis and aerobics shoes to running and basketball
throughout the mid to late 1980s, the largest segments of the athletic footwear industry at the
time. Fireman bought the British-based parent company in 1984. In 1985, Reebok had its initial
public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RBK.
In 1986, Reebok switched its logo from the Union Jack flag it had since its founding, to the Vector
logo - an abstract Union Jack streak across a race track - which mirrored the design of the side
flashes of its shoes The switch signaled the transition of the company into a performance brand
as it began licensing deals with professional athletes in the NBA and NFL.
During the 1980s, Reebok began introducing sports clothing and accessories (alongside entering
the college/pro sports arena), along with a new line of children's athletic shoes (called 'Weeboks')
at the end of 1980. By the end of the year, Reebok's sales were about $1 billion. One of the
company's most signature technologies, the Reebok Pump, debuted in 1989 with more than 100
professional athletes wearing the footwear by 1992, including Shaquille O'Neal.
Reebok named Carl Yankowski president and chief executive officer of the brand in 1998,
replacing former president Robert Meers. Yankowski stepped down one year later to accept an
executive position at another company. Reebok chairman and CEO Paul Fireman took over as
president for the first time in 12 years.
2000s–present
Former Reebok headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Reebok 11k Pump Inline hockey-Skates from 2011
Reebok signed Venus Williams after winning singles titles at Wimbledon and the 2000 Summer
Olympics. In December 2000, Reebok signed a 10-year licensing agreement with the NFL for the
exclusive rights to manufacture and sell NFL licensed merchandise, including uniforms and
footwear, for all 32 teams.
In 2001, Reebok became the exclusive apparel outfitter for the 29 teams in the NBA, and 16
WNBA teams for ten years beginning in the 2004-2005 season. The deal also added the Reebok
vector logo to the 2004 U.S. Olympic basketball team's uniforms. Later in 2001, Jay Margolis
was named as Reebok's president and COO. After launching retail flagship stores in China,
Dhaka, London, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Tokyo, Margolis resigned in October
2004. Fireman took over as president after signing a new long-term employment agreement with
the Reebok board of directors.
In 2003, Reebok also became the official uniform and apparel provider for the Canadian Football
League, which took effect in 2004.
Reebok acquired official National Hockey League sponsor CCM in 2004. The company began
manufacturing ice hockey equipment under the CCM and Reebok brands. Reebok phased out
the CCM name on NHL authentic and replica jerseys, using the Reebok logo since 2005. CCM
became Reebok-CCM Hockey in 2007. Reebok moved most of its hockey equipment lines to
CCM after 2015.
Adidas acquisition
In August 2005, Adidas acquired Reebok as a subsidiary, uniting two of the largest sport
outfitting companies, but maintaining operations under their separate brand names. [41] Adidas
acquired all of the outstanding Reebok shares and completed the deal valued at $3.8 billion. [42]
Following the acquisition, Adidas replaced Reebok as the official uniform supplier for the NBA in
2006 with an 11-year deal that includes the WNBA and replica jerseys and warm-up gear.
Reebok named Paul Harrington president and CEO of the company in January 2006, replacing
Paul Fireman who was acting president since 2004. Harrington joined the company in 1994 and
was Reebok's senior vice president of global operations and chief supply chain officer.
In 2010, Reebok announced a partnership with CrossFit, a fitness company and competitive
fitness sport, including sponsoring the CrossFit Games, opening CrossFit studios, and
introducing a line of co-branded footwear and apparel for Fall 2011. In 2011, Reebok debuted
the CrossFit delta symbol on the brand's fitness apparel line. Around that time, Reebok, as it
slowly began to lose its contracts to make sports uniforms and apparel to professional sports
leagues and college teams (its last uniform rights contract, with the NHL, ended in 2017) began
repositioning itself as a largely fitness-oriented brand, just as it had been during the 1980s and
early 1990s.
In 2013, Reebok announced another fitness partnership with Les Mills, a group fitness and team
training program in eighty countries in more than 20,000 studios. The agreement included
Reebok footwear and clothing integration into Les Mills' fitness programs and media marketing.
By July 2013, the red delta sign began showing up on all of Reebok's fitness collections. The
brand announced it was phasing out the vector logo and replacing it with the delta sign, making it
the company's second logo change in more than 120 years. The delta symbol represents the
three pillars of positive self-change including mental, physical and social, as Reebok increases
its presence in the fitness industry with yoga, dance, aerobics and CrossFit.
Following a successful re-release of many of its iconic sneaker and apparel lines from the
early/mid 1990s, in November 2019, Reebok announced that it was updating the 1992 Vector
logo along with the original "Reebok" script in Motter Tektura typeface and restoring both as the
company's core brand identity, citing the reason that consumers still identified with them rather
than the 2013 "Delta" logo. although the Delta would continue to be used on certain fitness
equipment and apparel lines.
Logo evolution
1977-93
93-97
2000-2005
2005-2008
2008-2014
2014-2019
2019- present
Products
Reebok Royal Glide Ripple Clip men's shoe
Reebok designs, manufactures, distributes and sells fitness, running and CrossFit sportswear
including clothing and footwear. The clothing line includes t-shirts, hoodies and pants among
other items. The brand has also collaborated with other companies to produce fitness equipment
and workouts.
The company has released numerous notable styles of footwear including the 1982 introduction
of the Reebok Freestyle that was manufactured and marketed for women.[49] In 1984, the shoe
accounted for more than half of the Reebok sales. [50] Following the aerobics trend from the 1980s
to early 1990s, Reebok also released workout programs called Reebok Step beginning in 1989.
[51]
The brand also introduced one of their most signature shoes, The Reebok Pump. The
footwear collection was released as a men's basketball shoe and the world's first fully adjustable
fit controlled with manual air allocation.[52]
The Reebok Ventilator, a line of lightweight athletic shoes with vented side panels, was first
introduced in 1990.[53] In 1996, Reebok signed a $50 million endorsement deal with Allen Iverson
when he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers.[54][55] Iverson collaborated with Reebok during his
contract to create the second-longest running basketball shoe line in history, beginning with the
Question shoe in 1996 and ending with Answer XIV.[56]
In 2010, the brand released Reebok Zig, an athletic footwear technology and collection of shoes
include zigzag foam soles designed to push athletes forward. [57] The Reebok Nano was released
in 2011 and is the first official CrossFit shoe.[58] The company has also partnered up with Les Mills
and CrossFit to produce more fitness apparel, footwear, and workouts.[17][59] Reebok released the
Z-Series foam, a combination of dense midsole and outsole so the foam is cushioned but not
worn-down. The foam debuted on the ZQuick TR with Reebok's new delta logo in 2014. [60]
Reebok Future innovation house has developed a new technology they call Liquid Factory. A
robot will extrude liquid polyurethane and "draw" shoe components without the use of traditional
shoe molds.[61]
In 2017, the UFC announced the launch of a new collection under the name Fight Night
Collection that includes an upgraded version of the Reebok-branded apparels. [62]
In 2018, Victoria Beckham being a long-term design partner with Reebok launched her first
collection inspired by Shaquille O'Neal.[63][64]
