Number 1 in the late 80s to today. Story of a brand that put women first before anyone else did

In 1982, Reebok’s Freestyle sneaker was released and boasted to be the first fitness shoe designed specifically for women. At the 1985 Emmy awards, actress Cybill Shepherd was seen wearing a pair on the red carpet. Reebok surpassed Nike by 1987 in the US.

The Start?

Joe and Jeff Foster found Reebok in 1958 in England as part of carrying their family tradition of making athletic footwear ahead. Running spikes were produced by the company throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s. At the Chicago International Sneaker Trade Show later in 1979, Paul Fireman got interested in the brand and acquired equal rights in North America

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To stay in the trend Reebok invested to create shoes for women’s aerobics. Nike and Adidas were focusing on the men's market and this is how Reebok got the lead. Later, Reebok started focusing on the men's market and soon Reebok could be seen in the gym and on the tennis court as well. By 1988, Rebook reached a revenue of $1.8 billion and Nike with $1.2 billion.

Becoming Unique

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Nike was progressing to capture fashion-oriented customers, Reebok’s major strength, by 1989. Reebok, contrarily, focused on rebranding itself to be a performance-oriented company focusing on technology as well.

Reebok Pump was one of Reebok’s first tech-infused sneakers that made a debut in 1989. Standing out from the ‘90s, DMX was one of the successes of Reebok. It had ten bulbous pods allowing better flow of the air and better distribution of weight and support throughout the sole.

Is Reebok’s Downturn Related to Adidas?

In 2005 Adidas acquired Reebok for the US $ 3.8 Billion The idea behind acquiring Reebok was to compete with Nike which was far ahead. Rumour had it that Adidas just wanted to promote its brand and did not care about the downfall of Reebok. To test it we must look into the sales. In 2015, Reebok sales equated to about 2.9 billion euros, in 2016 it dropped to under 2.5 billion euros and in 2018, it further decreased below 1.7 billion.

Contrarily, Adidas’ branded products tripled over the span of 2006. 27% of Adidas’s total revenue was contributed by Reebok’s revenue and the number fell to just 8% in 2018. This may mean that Adidas was sacrificing Reebok and focusing on itself.

Another evidence comes from the NBA contract. In 2001, Reebok had a contract with the NBA for 10 years i.e., till 2011. But just one year after the acquisition in 2006, the contract ended. An 11-year contract was signed with the NBA and Adidas sponsoring them and supplying them with uniforms. Shaquille O’Neal in June 2019 had an interest in acquiring the brand but he was not sure whether he could afford it.

Can Reebok Return to Where It Was?

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The brand has partnered with other high-end designers to deliver fashion-infused performance. It has also partnered with London-based Cottweiler in 2017 creating a series of hiking-inspired sneakers.

Pyer Moss, an American designer collaborated in 2018 on a project called the futuristic DMX Fusion 1 Experiment. With this partnership, it is trying to bring back some prominent ‘90s trainers like the Run DMX 10 and DMX Daytona.

Reebok has the potential to be popular again because sneakers are big and retro sneakers are bigger but then it depends on its new owners.