(R.SQUARE):ANOTHER GIANT COMPANY “REEBOK HISTORY”

Reebok was founded in England, in 1958, by a pair of brothers, Joe and Jeff Foster, to carry on a family tradition of making athletic footwear. Their grandfather, Joseph William Foster, had launched an eponymous company, J.W. Foster, in 1895 and developed one of the very first track spikes.

At the age of 14, In 1895, Joseph William Foster began work in his home above his father's sweatshop in Bolton, England, and designed the first spiked running shoes. After advancing his ideas, he set up his company ‘J.W. Foster 'joined his son in 1900, and changed the name of the company to J.W. Foster and son.

Foster can realize that his produced sneaker will be accepted by people that's why he opened a small factory called Olympic Works and gradually became more famous among athletes for his making outstanding "running pumps”. As a pioneer in the use of spikes, the company’s revolutionary running pumps have been published in the book Golden Kicks: The shoes That Changed Sport. The company began distributing shoes through the Union Jack flag that worn by British athletes. Harold Abrahams, the Olympic 100-meter champion at the 1924 Paris Summer Olympics (who would have been immortalized in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire), was famous.

 

In 1958, in Bolton, the founder's two grandchildren, Joe and Jeff Foster, formed a partner company, Reebok, which got its name in the South African dictionary obtained by Joe Foster's career as a child. The name is Afrikaans for the grey rhebok a kind of African antelope.

Reebok International Limited is an Anglo-American footwear and apparel company that has been a subsidiary of German sportswear giant Adidas since August 2005. It is the official shoe and apparel sponsor of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), CrossFit and Spartan Race.

After initially fighting for copyright under the name "Mercury", the brothers turned to Gray Rhebok, a species of African Antelope that inspired the brand name. Reebok continued to manufacture running spikes in the 1960s and 1970s, and the company's base remained in England. In 1979, Reebok was on exhibit at the Chicago International Sneakers Fair when Paul Fireman, an American outdoor gear dealer, discovered the brand; Fireman acquired the exclusive rights of Reebok in North America.

Initially, Fireman’s investment seemed like a modest success, with Reebok selling for roughly $1.5 million in 1981. By the end of the decade, it would become an investment that would reap legendary rewards.

It was in the 1980s that nature was really interested in being (or getting) in human form. This is the decade that aerobics has given us and seen a new emphasis on sports like tennis, which combine physical activity with socio-cultural life.  Providing casual athletic shoes designed for amateur athletes and fitness enthusiasts, the company expanded from running spikes. The brand introduced a gamble called Freestyle when Reebok’s explosive early growth began in the women’s aerobics market when referring to West Coast salesman Fireman, who saw for himself how interested his wife was by aerobics.

                                                              The Reebok Swift, a running spike from 1961

In 1984, just five years after acquiring a North American license, Fireman took another risk that would help cement Reebok's influential position in the late decade when buying a British parent company. While Fireman’s previous rights to Reebok allowed him to give creative input, the brand could have capitalized on the fitness revolution of the decade if Reebok had taken sole ownership. Nike and Adidas for their position in the men's market but had largely overlooked the women’s segment, which had facilitated Reebok’s continued success after the Freestyle.

Reebok's emphasis on fashionable footwear outside fitness resonated with consumers: By 1986, Reebok was the largest athletic shoe brand in North America. It certainly helped that the main character of the biggest movie of the year, Aliens, was kicking with an abstract idea, now known as "Alien Stomper". In 1987, Reebok's sales totaled $1.4 billion, a thousand times more than the first time Fireman was in 1981. This is in 1988, that number had grown to $1.8 billion, with Reebok controlling 26.7 percent of the athletic footwear.

But not all good things last forever; In 1989, the New York Times reported that Nike was "moving toward marketing shoes for fashion-oriented customers, an area where Reebok was strong." Reebok's response was to steal a page from Nike's playbook and try to name a performance-based company that puts technology ahead of fashion.

OFFICES

Reebok's parent organization, Adidas, is settled in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany, while the Reebok world central command stays situated in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Reebok EMEA (Europe, Center East, Africa) has its provincial office in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The organization likewise has extra-provincial workplaces situated in Panama City (Reebok Latin America), Shanghai (Reebok Shanghai Worldwide Trade Place), Singapore, Taikoo Shing, and Toronto. Reebok first entered the South Korean market in 1987, and since then South Korea has had substantial income. It proved to be South Korea's third-largest gaming brand. Through the global integration and acquisition of Adidas, Reebok is not currently registered as a South Korean company.

                                                              1980-1981 Reebok catalog ad displaying various training shoes