REEBOK

Reebok International Limited is a footwear and clothing manufacturer owned by

German sporting goods giant Adidas from 2005 to 2022. Reebok produces and

distributes fitness, running, and CrossFit sportswear, including clothing and footwear.

It is the former official footwear and apparel sponsor for Cross Fit and current sponsor

for Spartan Race. In 1958, Reebok was established in Great Britain as a companion

company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company which had been founded

in 1895 in Bolton, Lancashire. From 1958 until 1986, the brand featured the Union

Jack in its logo to signify the origins of the company. The company's global

headquarters are located in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., with regional offices in

Amsterdam, Montreal, Hong Kong, and Mexico City. In November 2016, Reebok

announced it would be moving its headquarters from the Boston suburb of Canton to

the Innovation and Design Building in the Seaport District of South Boston. The

reasons for the move, according to the company, were to be located in an urban

environment that is more desirable to millennial workers and to "clarify the roles" of

United States offices. The move was completed in autumn of 2018. In 1895, Joseph

William Foster at the age of 14 started work in his bedroom above his father's

sweetshop 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 their 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 sprint race

by Joe Foster as a boy. The name is Afrikaans for the grey rhebok, a type of African

antelope.

U.S. MARKET

In 1979, an American businessman named Paul Fireman took notice of Reebok at the

Chicago NSGA (National Sporting Goods of America) Show. Fireman negotiated a

deal to license and distribute the Reebok brand in the United States. The division

became known as 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.

1980s–1990s

In 1982, Reebok debuted the Reebok Freestyle aerobics shoe, the first athletic shoe

designed for women. The following year, Reebok's sales were $13 million. 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 English-based parent company in 1984. In

addition to its IPO, the brand established itself in professional tennis with the Newport

Classic, popularized by Boris Becker and John Mc Enroe, and the Revenge Plus,

better known today under its name Reebok Club C. Officially an American company

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'). By

mid-decade, Reebok's sales were about $1 billion. One of the company's most iconic

technologies, the Reebok Pump, debuted in 1989 with more than 100 professional

athletes wearing the footwear by 1992, including Shaquille O'Neal. Reebok worked

with fitness professional Gin Miller in the late 1980s to develop Step Reebok, based

on Miller's wooden prototype step and her ideas for step aerobics. The Step was

evaluated in physiology trials undertaken by Drs. Lorna and Peter Francis at San

Diego State University. In August 1989 the Step was ready, made in molded plastic

by Sports Step of Atlanta with Reebok's name on it, and by March 1990, the step

aerobics classes were attracting media attention. Miller promoted Step Reebok in

person, touring the U.S. and demonstrating it at exercise studios. Step aerobics

became widely popular, helping the company sell many thousands of adjustable-

height step devices and millions of high-top shoes with ankle support. Step aerobics

peaked in 1995 with 11.4 million people exercising in that style. 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.

Reebok signed Venus Williams after she won 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. Also in

2001, Reebok hired the Arnell Group with Peter Arnell as their lead marketing

agency. They created the "Outperform" campaign, the Yao Ming line, the Rbk brand

and the famous Terry Tate Super Bowl commercial, among other programs. 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.[48] In 2017, Adidas sold CCM to a Canadian

private equity firm, Birch Hill Equity Partners, for around $100 million. Following an

intellectual property lawsuit 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. Adidas acquired all of the outstanding Reebok shares and

completed the deal valued at $3.8 billion. 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, 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 with Adidas replacing them

in that capacity) 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.

ACQUISITION BY AUTHENTIC BRANDS GROUP

After some financial struggles, Adidas announced on February 16, 2021 its plans to

divest the Reebok brand as the German sportswear maker moves on after trying to

revive its performance for more than a decade, after analyzing options for the brand

and expects a hit of about 250 million euros to operating profit from costs to make its

struggling Reebok brand a standalone company as it prepares to sell or spin-off the

business, with a third of that in 2022 but none in 2023. On July 1, 2021, Adidas

shortlisted bidders for the brand, the finalist companies being Wolverine World Wide

and Authentic Brands Group on a joint deal, private equity companies Advent

International, CVC, Cerberus Capital, and Sycamore Partners, with a deadline for

August 2021. On August 12, 2021, it was announced that Authentic Brands Group

would be acquiring the Reebok brand from Adidas for at least $2.5 billion, in a deal

expected to close in the first quarter of 2022 Reebok's former parent company,

Adidas, is headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany, while the Reebok

world headquarters remains located in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Reebok EMEA

(Europe, Middle East, Africa) has its regional office in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The

company also has additional regional offices located in Panama City (Reebok Latin

America), Shanghai (Reebok Shanghai International Commerce Centre), Singapore,

Taikoo Shing, and Toronto. Reebok first entered the South Korean market in 1987

and has since been making substantial revenue in South Korea. It is shown that it is

the third most popular sports brand in South Korea. Through the merger and
acquisition of the brand by Adidas in 2005, Reebok is no longer listed as a company

in South Korea.

PRODUCTS

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. In 1984, the shoe

accounted for more than half of the Reebok sales. Following the aerobics trend from

the 1980s to early 1990s, Reebok also released workout programs called Reebok Step

beginning in 1989. 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. The Reebok

Ventilator, a line of lightweight athletic shoes with vented side panels, was first

introduced in 1990. In 1996, Reebok signed a $50 million endorsement deal with

Allen Iverson when he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. 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. In

2010, the brand released Reebok Zig, an athletic footwear technology and collection

of shoes include zigzag foam soles designed to push athletes forward. The Reebok

Nano was released in 2011 and is the first official CrossFit shoe. The company has

also partnered up with Les Mills and CrossFit to produce more fitness apparel,

footwear, and workouts. 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. 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. 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. In 2018, Victoria Beckham being a long-term design partner with Reebok

launched her first collection inspired by Shaquille O'Neal. Reebok sponsored kits for

top seeded Indian Football clubs, Mohun Bagan AC (2006–11) and East Bengal FC

(2003–05, 2006–10). Later it sponsored kits for Indian Premier League teams, such as

the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and

Chennai Super Kings in the first edition of the league held in 2008. However, for the

second edition held in 2009, the sponsorships included Royal Challengers Bangalore,

Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings, Kings XI Punjab kits. In May 2012,

Reebok India filed a criminal complaint against former managerial employees,

Subhinder Singh Prem and Vishnu Bhagat, accusing them of a financial fraud of up to

US$233 million. On the charge of alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act

(FEMA) violations, Reebok India was booked and may face penal action. Twelve

further arrests of employees and associates were made during the same period. As of

July 2013, Prem and Bhagat were granted bail by the high court but remained

imprisoned following their detainment in September 2012. One of Reebok's most

prominent athletes, Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, was named by Forbes as

the world's thirty first highest-paid sportsperson in June 2012. At the time of the

article, Dhoni endorsed more than 20 other brands in deals that were cumulatively

valued at US$23 million The company maintained its relationship with its origins in
the UK through a long-term sponsorship deal with Bolton Wanderers, a League One

football club, however, in 2009, Bolton changed their sponsorship to 188bet. When

the team moved to a brand new ground in the late-1990s, their new home was named

the Reebok Stadium. Several other English clubs, such as Liverpool F.C., had Reebok

sponsorship deals up until the purchase by Adidas, but most have since switched to

either the parent brand (which has a long history in football) or another company

altogether. In April 2014, Bolton Wanderers officially announced the Reebok Stadium

would be officially rebranded in a new sponsorship deal with sportswear

manufacturer Macron, who will manufacture the club's kits and sponsor the stadium

under the name Macron Stadium in a four-year deal announced by the club's

chairman, Phil Gartside. In Germany, Reebok sponsored football club 1. FC Köln. In

rugby union, Reebok sponsored the Wales national team until late 2008, who won the

Grand Slam in the Six Nations Championship in that year, and the Tasman Makos in

New Zealand's domestic competition, the Air New Zealand Cup. In 2006, Arsenal and

France national team striker Thierry Henry signed a deal to join the "I Am What I

Am" campaign on August 1, 2006. Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs has also

done "I Am What I Am" commercials. Andriy Shevchenko started his endorsement

deal with the company in 2006. In February 2019, the Russian subsidiary faced a

scandal. While adapting the brand's "Never apologize for being strong" ad campaign,

Reebok posted pictures on its social media accounts which encouraged women to try

facesitting, saying ("To sit on a man's face instead of sitting on a needle of man's

approval"). The public had a negative reaction to this and Russian Marketing Director

Alexander Golofast along with several other employees were fired In 2004, Reebok

entered into a deal that allows them the rights to manufacture Canadian Football

League (CFL) onfield jerseys, sideline gear and footwear; this deal ended in 2015. In
Mexico, Reebok was kit provider of Chivas de Guadalajara before the team was taken

over by parent company Adidas in 2011.

Reebok shoes were featured as product placement advertising on the Nickelodeon

game show Double Dare in the 1980s. From 2002 to 2012, the company held the

exclusive rights to manufacture and market both authentic and replica uniform

jerseys, sideline clothing and caps, and onfield football footwear (marketed as NFL

Equipment) of the teams of the National Football League (NFL). The company hired

filmmaker Errol Morris to produce a series of 30-second commercials that aired

during the 2006 NFL season. Reebok signed a four-year deal to become the official

shoe supplier to Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2004; Reebok also was given the

rights to be the official uniform and apparel provider of the Canadian Football League

(CFL) that same year; this alliance lasted until 2015. Reebok held the rights to

produce the on-ice "EDGE" Uniform System, performance clothing and training

footwear of the National Hockey League (NHL) in a 10-year agreement from 2007 to

2017. On December 2, 2014, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced

a six-year deal with Reebok, which began in July 2015. In July 2018, Reebok Boston

Track Club announced to be led by coach Chris Fox from Syracuse University.

NON-SPORT RELATED ENDORSEMENTS

Rapper Jay-Z became the first non-athlete to get a signature shoe from Reebok. The

"S. Carter Collection by Rbk" was launched on November 21, 2002, and the S. Carter

sneaker became the fastest-selling shoe in the company's history. Later, Reebok made

a deal with rapper 50 Cent to release a line of G-Unit sneakers, and artists such as

Nelly and Miri Ben-Ari have become spokespersons for the company. Reebok also

signed Scarlett Johansson and introduced her own line of clothing and footwear called
Scarlett Hearts, part of the Rbk Lifestyle Collection. Pop singer Ariana Grande signed

to Reebok in 2017. In the 2016 Gigi Hadid joined the company. Reebok also produce

shoes for Emporio Armani under the label EA7. Some artists and fashion figures that

have signed endorsement agreements with Reebok in the last years are Ariana

Grande, Gal Gadot, Victoria Beckham, Cardi B, and Camille Kostek. In 2005, Reebok

also signed an exclusive agreement to design and supply all eight team home and

away strips for the new Australian A-League competition. Although not an expensive

deal, this partnership paid dividends for Reebok, due to the growing popularity of

football and the league in the area. An estimated 125,000 A-League jerseys were sold

in Australia, a record for a single league's sales in a year for a sports manufacturer.

Reebok's agreement ended at the finish of the 2010–11 season. In 1988, Design

Continuum, an industrial design firm, partnered with Reebok to design a shoe that

used inflatable chambers that pump-up for a custom fit, the Reebok Pump. A demo

version of the Pump, a customizable inflatable/deflatable high-top shoe, was exhibited

at the Sporting Goods Manufacturers' Association in February 1989. On 24 November

1989, the first Reebok Pump was released. That month, Dominique Wilkins was

featured on a television commercial introducing the Reebok Pump. Reebok released

the Omni Zone, Twilight Zone and the SXT Pump in 1990. That year, Michael

Chang's Court Victory Pumps was launched.

In February 1991, Dee Brown inflated his Reebok Pumps in front of a national

audience before scoring a title-winning dunk during the 1991 NBA Slam Dunk

Contest. That year, Pump expanded into cross-training, off-road, golf, walking,

aerobics and running shoes. Fullfoot, midfoot, collar, arch, footbed and Dual Chamber

support was offered at the time. The pump technology was patented as USPTO

#5113599 in May 1992. That year, Shaquille O'Neal was given his own pair of
pumps. The Pump Graphlite, a running shoe endorsed by Dan O'Brien and Dave

Johnson was released in 1992. That year, the film Juice included a montage of Omar

Epps' character trying on different Reebok Pumps before meeting up with Tupac. The

Blacktop Model was released in 1991. In 1994, Reebok partnered with Above the

Rim, an American drama directed by Jeff Pollack and Tupac to create a full line of

shoes named after the movie. That year, the Insta Pump Fury was launched. John

Cena wore Pumps as part of his old-school hip hop gimmick in 2004. During the

NBA All-Star weekend in 2005, Reebok introduced the ATR (Above the Rim) Pump.

Allen Iverson, Yao Ming, Steve Francis, Baron Davis and Jerome Williams

showcased the ATR Pump during the NBA All-Star Game 2005. In April 2005, the

Pump 2.0 was launched. The following year, Allen Iverson's The Answer IX featured

the Pump Auto/Off Smart Valve. The system automatically engaged or deactivated

depending on performance needs. The Reebok Pump X MLB, an edition paying

homage to Shea Stadium and the Yankee Stadium was released in 2008. Reebok

released an original reproduction of The Fury in its 'Black/Citron/Red' colorway and

27 additional collaborative design versions of the shoe for its 20th anniversary in

2014. In September 2014, the Keith Haring x Reebok Classic "Crack is Wack"

collection Pumps, named after the 1986 mural, were released. That month, the Reebok

Court Victory Pump was re-released. In 2015, the athletic running shoe ZPump

Fusion was introduced, followed by ZPump Fusion 2.0 in 2016 and ZPump Fusion

2.5 later the same year. More or less simultaneous to these three releases, the Nano

Pump, Nano Pump 2.0 and Nano Pump 3.0 were released, which are designed for

indoor circuit training. Early in 2017, the next athletic iteration of the product line

called Pump Plus was released. The Pump Plus extends area covered by inflatable

chambers even further and does not require any adjustable lace.