Why Reebok lost
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- In 1987, they were actually winning. How did it happen? And what went wrong?
More info and sources at bottom.
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Let's get into it! These are all affiliate links - some of these books are available free at Archive.org or your library. I will admit that I had to buy the Joe Foster book cause there's no digital version.
My beloved shoe:
amzn.to/47QyiMi
Joe Foster's memoir, Shoemaker:
amzn.to/3RfSd1W
I don't know what my deal was, but I was oddly affected by this book. He makes it pretty personal for a CEO memoir, and the scene - Bury in the 50s and 60s - just has a ton more interesting historical texture than many other memoirs. There were some sad family moments, a lot of fighting, and some bittersweet triumphs. Crazy book.
Phil Knight's Shoe Dog:
amzn.to/3GekgIK
I didn't actually reread this fully for this vid - just skimmed and remembered it. As I was looking through it, Knight came off a bit more likeable than I remembered. But then again, the end of the book is all about the profound insights of "The Bucket List" movie so....I don't know. I think I know who I'm siding with in the sneaker wars.
Swoosh: The Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There
amzn.to/47prA06
I mainly mined this for aerobics/Reebok factoids. It did leave me with the impression that my take was correct though.
David Foster's blog:
fostersfamouss...
This blog confirmed my general affection for the Foster clan and helped me check some facts. Again, I have developed a bit of a parasocial relationship with the Fosters at this point and thus feel mega-guilty for saying Reebok was Paul Fireman's creation but...yeah. Anyway, fun blog - lots of pictures and stuff I didn't feel comfortable using in the video but you could check it out.
Harvard Business School Case Studies:
I needed hard facts and I found them in these case studies about Reebok and Nike, respectively. But dang, it cost money! I was a bit frustrated by that. But I think this video would have been way worse without money stats - too general and overreaching.
store.hbr.org/...
store.hbr.org/...
Newspapers - I just searched a ton of newspapers for Freestyle mentions. And ads mainly came from TH-cam and eBay.
Oh, here's a profile of Angel Martinez. I was super lucky I found it because I said his name right in the video thanks to it. timesmachine.n...
I think that's it. Have a good one.
I begged my parents for the shoes with the pump. Then I got them and I think my little 10 year old brain immediately understood marketing gimmicks. I don't know though, seeing the old ads I feel like Reebok (v2) could make a great Gen Z brand if they leaned into being weird again.
Also: Red Bull did not give me wingssssss.....
I remember the pump clearly. I'm sure nike did it a few years later
You are mistaken about the pump. It actually worked and was an improvement not a gimmick. You were just a 10 year old and not an athlete on the pinnacle of performance, so you wouldn’t have known the difference.
@@ladiorangethey didn’t.
@@maxmotors9497 I was going to say that you don't know me or what my athletic prowess was... But I'm 33 and still don't have athletic prowess 😅
Hello Phil, I love your videos. I was a basketball player in the 90s and early 2000s, and one of my favorite shoes to wear on the court was Reebok Pumps. Its system worked well, keeping my feet in position without causing discomfort. No blisters, no toes crashing the fron of the shoes, because it was fit to the shape of my feet. It's interesting to note that the design was inspired by recovery boots or casts that could be adjusted as the swelling changed. Well used it was like to have (not exactly but somewhat close) custom made shoes. Consequently, I didn't have to opt for larger sizes or resort to wearing double socks with ankle tape underneath. Maybe it was considered a gimmick for the casual user, but not so much for someone who played and trained for hours every day. For me, it made a significant difference in performance and comfort on the court.
While other shoes prioritized cushioning systems, Reebok's ERS and Hexalite weren't the absolute best (they were just meh ok), but they effectively kept my foot in place, even during abrupt changes of direction and hard breaks. The shoe wasn't perfect or that refined, but it wasn't all gimmicky .
yeah i was very surprised they made such inroads in the nba. pretty interesting
@@PhilEdwardsIncif you didn't know this then you never owned a pair of pumps. People associate them with the 'gimmick' of being able to jump higher but they were never marketed that way. They got that reputation through jokes in pop culture like White Men Can't Jump.
Just as a history lesson, the guy running in the NIKE commercial was Walt Stack. He did run everyday along the San Francisco Marina and was a really, really nice guy who always had a smile on his face.
Good vid but its pronounced 'Berry' not 'Bury'. Yes it makes no sense, welcome to England.
I really did make an effort but was apparently led astray. english.stackexchange.com/questions/380013/bury-vs-berry-the-proper-pronunciation-edition
apologies.
I remember reading that the wrinkles were a production mistake and they spent a lot of effort getting rid of them. Then they found the wrinkles were popular and they put the wrinkles back.
Yeah in one thing I read, apparently Angel Martinez was like, "No, it gives it character. Women will love it!"
Is it like how ppl immediately fold/roll the bill/lid on a brand-new baseball cap?
these were sort of built in imperfections due to a new, significantly softer leather they were using.@@SayAhh
I remember this too
@@SayAhh No: baseball caps a have the bill made flat for shipping. You bend the bill to keep the sun out of your eyes.
Reebok has always been an interesting counter-brand. I'd always positioned Nike against Adidas, I never even thought they existed in the same market! My dad grew up a cross-country runner and always preferred Reebok in the late 60's. Looking back, some of those high-tops were pretty fly tho
I think they lost the design game in the 90's. Like the pump shoe was totally popular but it was a product of its time. Their shoes did not have a lasting design. Aerobics in the 80's was the 2000's Tai Bo and the 2010's Zumba, not that people don't do them, they just don't have a history like running ffs. As you said, they were a trend shoe and they lost the thread while Jordan's, docs, skater brands, Converse, Adidas, Fila, Puma all started eating up all the "trendy" young set. Which was the era I was apart of as an aging millennial who doesn't really want to relive the 80's, though I am wearing a bat winged Angora sweater that's totally 80's, but I diversify my vintage as I've always done. Vintage is often better made and just as expensive as a less well made new item. Also, fashion has cycles.
I think also in the late 90s early 2000s "low" shoes were more fashionable (I am not referring to the US)., where Reebok was too invested in high top Pumps. Also Hexalite was not exactly "cool" vs Air Max where it was more visible when worn.
I own Reebok Club C 85. It feels and looks great for most situations. I hope for Reebok's rise in the future, their shoes are so underrated.
The vintage and the club c 85s are amazing.always preferred em especially over sambas
I remember the heartbreak of scuffing my new pair of Reeboks in junior high. It was my first time buying white shoe polish because the shoes NEEDED to be pristine as much as they NEEDED to be Reeboks. I guess I can be grateful that I leaned so much into being such a tool in middle school that I was over it by the time I reached high school. No more fads for me (except maybe those cut-up jeans 🙄).
I had knockoff pumps when I was a kid and I was really jealous of my cousin because he had legit Insta Pumps, the ones that came with a CO2 cartridge... device?.. that filled the shoe instantly. I don't remember what brand those were but I think they were late 80s/early 90s Reeboks.
the club c is a very legit reebok model, also im pretty sure theyre still making them in the same factories as with adidas. im honestly really happy about the direction abg is taking reebok in - im glad they retroed a bunch of pump models and not just relied super heavily on the instapump like adidas. plus i think the quality to price ratio is one of the best in the industry right now. its a pretty good time to be a sneakerhead - they gotta just properly retro dmx and hexalite shoe lines
Excellently researched as always. It's a real shame that Reebok were one of the major British sports brands and are now basically just a nane. The same thing happened to another brand from the north west of England, Umbro, when they were bought out and then sold on by Nike.
By the way, Bury is pronounced 'Berry' - British place names, eh?
i swear i looked this up! multiple places led me astray...accented apologies
@@PhilEdwardsInc It depends on the accent, it's definitely not a clear cut thing. I say 'burry' and seems from a quick search people in Bury itself seem to say 'burry'.
@@Hessic The correct pronunciation is whatever the actual inhabitants primarily say. Everything else is irrelevant.
@@realtalk6195 absolutely. I was going off this video about Bury Football Club where everyone pronounced it 'Berry' th-cam.com/video/oBlF24WfqLw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=a9xyuV4bZlDJEJHp
I live there, and it's fairly 50/50 bury/berry. Personally I say Bury
The adidas acquisition really did Reebok no favors. They put them on a shelf and kinda forgot about them. There were some cool collaborations like the ZX/instapump fury mashup, but nothing super special. Now that they have some room to breathe after being sold, there’s some real momentum from Reebok nowadays. Hopefully they make a bigger comeback with more considered products and collabs like the LQQK studio or Eames pair from a year or two ago.
dang an eames collaboration is pretty sweet
I think also you can't discount the impact of the 80s rap and street wear trend that made Adidas mainstream. Perhaps Reebok didn't chase that trend hard enough.
Yeah I got the impression that approach wasn't on their radar at all.
@@PhilEdwardsInc They had Shaq as one of their endorsers.
In the UK Reebok was big in the Rugby market. They made Rugby boots and and the jerseys worn by the national teams. Nike's UK branch pretty much ignored Rugby until about ten years ago and instead went all out into football (soccer) when a lot of other companies were hesitant due to the hooligan culture. This resulted in when the shift happened in the 90s and 00s where football stars became celebrities off the field too (think David Beckham modeling for aftershave ads) it was Nike that they were wearing not Reebok. Then UnderArmour came along and took over the Rugby Market overnight around 2005 and that was that.
always can count on phil to find an interesting story about something right in front of our eyes
Fantastic as always. I think you need to do another one on the pump shoe alone. That's what killed Rebook for me, and I'm guessing I'm not alone. Every kid that had them and the bladders breaking left a bad taste in our mouths, and our soles uncomfortable. It was a good way to disappoint customers.
this is not a bad idea.
@@PhilEdwardsInc huzzah!!
The 1st basketball hitops (from aliens in 1986) were crazy popular, good shoes and almost 1/2 the price of Jordans. The pump just seemed like a gimmick, sure it sold well and they had Shaq. However Shaq appealed to the under 16 crowd and made the brand seem kiddie.
Also, I think Reebok did a mistake in quickly dropping Garth Algar as its spokesperson right after Wayne's World
so true. th-cam.com/video/KjB6r-HDDI0/w-d-xo.html
Yeah, I mean, the ridiculousness did fit the brand.
My brother in Christ, my feet are US-16.5 4E, or 16.5 quadruple wide, finding shoes is a 6-8 month process that costs $325 CAD, and, my feet have been oversized since I was 12. If these brands wanted me to Just Do It, or U.B.U, they'd go into bigger or awkward shoe sizes. That's why I end up infinitely loyal to New Balance, they took the market no one else wanted.
dang I support your devotion!
Haha, Bigfoot!
But yeah, I understand the struggle.
Lol in the UK we say "Berry" not "Bury" despite the spelling. For example you dont "Bury your dead" you "berry your dead".
This made me think of that famous "Are those rebook or nike" radio call
i am so heartbroken he didnt find some way to shoehorn it in there
My real frustration was not being able to include this commercial. th-cam.com/video/fm6UhMKF8DU/w-d-xo.html
good shout! th-cam.com/video/BQ4c54rCJ_k/w-d-xo.html
I Was born in 2000 and never remember Rebooks growing up. I’m in the UK too! However now they’re very popular and fashionable too. My rebook club revenge are the most comfortable shoe I own. Destroyed by pair with yellow and red stripes on but hoping they’ll re-do those soon!
New subscriber to your channel - great content!
Fascinating - 95 for me and Reeboks were still The thing over and above Nike in school from 00-05. Guess trends do come and go pretty quickly :)
When i was a kid my dad was quizzing me on spelling. “Spell cat!” He said. “C-A-T!” “Spell dog!” “D-O-G!” “Spell shoe!” I looked down at my shoes and said, “R-E-E-B-O-K!” Now where’s my commercial?
I grew up in Turkey and when I was watching the video, I was surprised the comparison between Reebok and Nike. As being around Europe, we had different comparison. At least in 90s Nike and Adidas were like Pepsi and Coca Cola. Puma, Umbro, Diadora, Fila, Ellesse, Lotto, Le Coq Sportif, Converse or Vans etc. were more suitable for comparison against Reebok. Beside Nike and Adidas, all the other brands' shoe prices were matching their quality. I think they lost, because they couldn't came up with a popular model. The closest one was the pump shoes. Even though they were comfortable, they weren't long lasting.
I think 80s, most brands tried new things and 90s they perfected them. I'm talking about the all big corporations. If you look closely, you will notice. They need to adjust their formulas to profit more. Of course, everything has get smarter, faster, stronger after 90s too, but you'll see that planned obsolescence still stays since then. Hence, Reebok not having enough memorable popular models made them pushed out of the competition.
2:16 - A fell (as in fellrunning) is a hilly or mountainous area commonly found in northern Britain and Scandinavia.
It can be compared with term alpine. Alpine mostly only refer to mountains in central Europe, as you seldom talk about the alpine parts of Peru.
So, in the same way, the fells are in northern Scandinavia and Britain.
Maybe that's why Reebok spelled it as "Fjellrunners".
Can we talk about how the hell a sports film about the shoe executives got made? The FIFA movie was at least 90% funded by FIFA as propaganda, but two separate brands you've covered recently (McDonalds and Nike) both had promotional biographical movies made about them by creative teams who freely chose the subject. The Ferrari bio-pic too is another example of these weird films celebrating businessmen as though they are the heroes of our society. Has the constant dealing with business people and the money guys finally given Hollywood creatives a kind of Stockholm syndrome?
Haha yeah I actually saw that movie in theaters (very rare for me for time reasons). It was...OK? I dunno, it was a pretty crazy movie that it got made. I felt like they made it with the idea of promoting their new Artists Equity company but the plot got away from them.
You should find Elliot Roberts’ video on the trend of “brand biopics” that he made a few months ago.
Hollywood is, for the most part, a business. Of course they had to engage in navel gazing at some point.
Skipping ahead a “little bit”? While glossing over Onitsuka and Phil Knight’s total appropriation of their technology, design, and marketing? The Tiger was the model. Say it: Phil Knight stole everything from a superior Japanese company.
A humbling reality that shows itself in many “American” success stories.
as a runner, the idea of wearing a Nike shoe mount is ridiculous. They don’t even make running shoes anymore. They make weird trendy shoes that will mess your knees, and feet up.
In 1985 my dad went on a trip to America and brought me back a pair of pure white, soft leather, outstandingly eyecatching sneakers with a Union Jack logo and a name neither I nor anyone at school had ever heard of. And we lived in England at the time.
They became an immediate sensation at school. The minimalist colour scheme violently broke with the riot of colour that was the 80s plus of course I was the only kid that had them so it was super exclusive. They were a B%*7CH to keep clean and the creamy soft leather threatened to scuff if you looked at it too harshly.
I loved them and Reebok has had a warm spot in my heart ever since. The advertising slogan I remember is not UBU but the one seen in your video at 9:40 "Because Life Is Not A Spectator Sport"
ha thanks for that anecdote
mine are also proving quite hard to clean btw
Graduated high school in ‘87.
Definitely a big part of my high school years.
Phil, you are a master of your craft. Love these short docs. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
cheers from usa!
The pumps were not a gimmick. They actually worked. I had a pair growing up and they were the best fitting shoes I ever wore on the court.
You should do a video on the pumps!
Bury is actually pronounced "berry", but don't worry about it too much, as even we Mancunians disagree on it 😂. But it is "berry".
thank you for some redemption! i did try to research it...
"Berry" is pronounced differently in all parts of England than the American pronunciation. As an American, you aren't obliged to pronounce English towns with an English accent. British make no effort whatsoever to pronounce American cities in the way the locals do. British even have their unique pronunciations of Los Angeles and New Orleans.@@PhilEdwardsInc
Phil, your videos rock. I just like to let you know that you're doing an amazing job. If you ever get down about putting out incredible videos, but not getting Mr. Beast views, just know that your videos make my day. And I, and many others, truly the blood, sweat, and tears you put into producing such exceptional high-quality educational content.
haha thank ya
Reebok lost It's creative sight as well. There's a reason these 80s-90s silhouettes are performing better now than their sales In the 2000s: They're objectively better, In terms of looks, feel, and design. Avia and Pony made the same mistake. Nike got creative, they invested In the company, and that's why they're on top, Like Adidas and Puma
Ive been buying Reebok Classics since the 90s, had a few ither brands, but the Reebok Classics keep me coming back to em, even though, only prob i got is they feel cheaper made than they used too
Strange, I never even knew Reebok had died in the 2000s - at school in the UK it was always a Reebok vs Nike play off and a mate had The Pump while I lusted after a pair of Nike Air but they were too £££ for me - as a result I’ve stuck to Nike and didn’t realise Reebok’s demise 😮
as someone who's seen a lot of reeboks. choosing a tiny dumb cute deer... lol.
i worked at a Reebok store in 2001...it was the first job i got laid off from.
Years ago, I was in a meeting in which Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) were mentioned often. That acronym is pronounced as "ar box" but one of the higher-ups kept saying "ree box." The person next to me and I were silently convulsing in laughter. But we did not ask him if he was talking about animals or shoes instead of telecommunications companies. We were bad children.
BTW, I'm guessing that all of the Europeans have commented that we Usonians do not know how to say "Adidas" correctly. I say it the same way as you and we're both wrong. Alas.
haha not too bad on the adidas front (but definitely some). i try to stick to my RBOCs.
Reebok are one of the few brands that has a decent selection of clown shoes in my size. The fact that I can get them for like 30 USD on sale just makes it all the more better. I really don't understand the Nike hype.
please elaborate!!
My mom had a couple pairs of the high top step aerobics Reeboks in the late 80s. I thought they were cool then as an 8 year old, still do now.
I'd like to see a video on this like Adidas why are Adidas losing versus Nike
reebok (and filas) are the short king's savior in shoe heightening technology
I owned several pairs of Reebok Classics and they are as about Essex as a Ford Cosworth or a girl with her knickers around her ankles (this may be a bit of localism for you Yankies). It was the vajazzle of the 90s.
hahaha beautiful description there
Seeing this right after i bought a pair of Reeboks yesterday lol.
Hey Phil, this is an amazing video. Great job! Just discovered this channel.
means a lot from a true sneakerhead - thanks!
Let’s be honest… Micheal Jordan is why Nike won
Great vid, but could of done with asking a brit how to pronounce Bury, it’s pronounced like bury, ie burying someone
i swear i did my research- lot of conflicting advice.
The whole brand craze has always puzzled me. I found my the last pair of running shoes that I bought very ugly, (which seemed to insult the salesperson personally), but they were good to run with, and after a few rounds through the field the original screamy colors are covered anyhow.
I like your video a lot I like Reebok and I still wear Reebok
The one thing Nike did very well during the 80s and 90s (and still does) is getting endorsement deals with high-profile athletes. For example, their first endorsement deal with Michael Jordan (as an NBA rookie) was in 1984. They launched their "Air Jordan" shoe in 1985, which I hear has done okay in the marketplace.
Yeah, I was kinda surprised that a video about the sneakers market in the 1980's didn't mention Jordan once!
The Jordan thing was huge. And on top of that they got Spike Lee to co-star in and direct commercials for Air Jordans. I am not sure I can imagine an equivalent director doing something like that today.
I feel like you left out the part where Nike signs Michael Jordan, and bulls one of the biggest consumer product R&D departments on earth. That’s when they really started to pull away from the rest of the shoe market. It’s also why 90% of the retro shoe market is dominated by Nike. They cranked out design classics while all the others chased trends.
i think that's the whole last three minutes of the video! but that's fair regardless
I always thought reebok made cooler shoes as a kid in the 00's
Edit: it's great to see you agree Phil!
Rebook had really cool basketball shoes in the 90s
Original Reebok Pumps were the coolest shit in the world back then, never got me a pair 😔
The 90s Reebok basketball shoes are still head turners on and off the court.
1:25 Both British places named "Bury" rhyme with "berry", like "bury the dead", according to my copy of the _BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names._ ♥
i will consult this next time instead of the internet!
I’ve no idea where the second Bury is, but some locals in or around the Lancashire town pronounce it Burry or Burreh. Everyone else says Berry though.
I was in a mall in Springfield, Mo. in the 1980s and heard a woman complaining, “My kid insists on buying re-boxed shoes. I don’t know what re-boxed shoes are.“
OMG I’ve been thinking about the yellow high tops from the opening scene of Jumpin’ Jack Flash the entire time! One of my all time favorite feel-good nostalgia movies! 😂
Many people most strongly associate Reebok with their connection with ‘90s-2000s NBA stars like Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson: prior to the sale to Authenic Brands, a group led by rapper-cum-frequent NBA training camp invitee Master P tried to purchase Reebok from Adidas, in what was billed as establishing the first black-owned sports brand.
Reebok lost because you pronounced Bury wrong. 🙂
I was led astray by the internet. Bury me now.
@@PhilEdwardsInc Don't feel too bad. There are some British people that pronounce it that way, but the majority of people from Bury would pronounce it "Berry". It probably wasn't really your fault. Not entirely. 😂
I’ve got two pairs of Reeboks from their Jurassic Park collaboration. I love them dearly - especially my pumps 👌👌
Ahhh, I loved my double strap reeboks back in the day!! 😊
How you don't mention Michael Jordan
As a college student I feel like rebooks are the most popular shoe in campus... Doesn't feel like a failure to me
I remember reeboks being pretty popular until the early 2000s, they were popular with the hip hop crowd, but I think Nike Air Force 1’s blew up around then and everyone had to have those. They were in all the music videos and even Nelly had the song about them. Reeboks became more obscure and fell behind Nikes and adidas. Same thing happened to fila and k-Swiss. I still wear reeboks all the time though, even the 30 dollar club C’s are a lot more comfortable than most 100 dollar Nikes and even adidas. The club c Reeboks are kinda making a comeback though, I noticed they’re going up in price and see more young people wearing them lately
A other quality video, thanks! I bought my first pair of Reeboks long after the fad had worn off. I was amazed how soft/comfortable they were. Then, a few months later they were almost completely disintegrated! I also had a pair of Nikes with waffle tread that I ran with for years and except for worn treads, they were still intact.
I wonder if the fact that Reeboks did not last very long had something to do with the decline?
they actually noticed it at both reebok and nike. i think both were quoted as believing it just sold more shoes! i also don't know how long that strategy works...
Reebook Pump shoes where not so crazy compared to the contemporary fluo flashy nikes with no lace and an atomic or galactic logo I also had. That airmax era was totally crazy for shoes.
But yeah wish I had those reebook double scratch at some point, way classier than the puma driving shoes that went trendy years after.
I remember Reebok in the Aliens 2 movie. It was a big deal but the brand was popular before that. I had a pair of high tops and also tennis shoes. Then the brand went into obscurity and if I think of it now it is only associated with CrossFit.
I remember it being a big deal at the time that Cybill Shepherd wore Reeboks to an awards show because she said women’s high heels were uncomfortable. As a guy I was completely oblivious to the fact that women often wore uncomfortable shoes.
the coverage made it seem like the breakout moment of the whole year.
Reebok Junkie, They Will Always Have A Place In My Closet. pumps and Leather Classics And after Shaq And Iverson being Back. they are doing great things
I still love Reebok. Their new styles are both cool and cheap (price wise). R.
Reebok developed a lot of "performance enhancing" technology for their shoes.
Energy Return System... The Pump... Hexalite... Ultra Lite... DMX... Zigtech...
I tried a lot of them since i played a lot of basketball in the 1990s to early 2000s. The shoes were more affordable than Nike's but gave you good value as they were durable with premium level of comfort.
The shoes were endorsed by NBA stars like Allen Iverson, Shaquille O'Neal, Shawn Kemp and others...
I think the investments made on these technologies and athlete endorsements played a part in Reebok's downfall. While Nike just focused their efforts in the Air systems they had while maintaining high prices for their athlete-endorsed products.
Long time watcher, first time commenter. Wonderful video as ever Phil - I really enjoy your videos and its an instaclick whenever they pop up. Keep up the amazing work!
thank ya!
Here in the UK around 1984 reebok were more a race track shoe i.e spike running shoe, or running shoe, but were not commercial more of a for pro runners shoe..quite expensive! The Nike Wimbledon and diadora Borg elite gold were the must get shoe in the early 80 here and around 1986 the Reebok workout classic became popular on the streets, either white with the gum sole or in the navy!
Girls tended to wear the mids with the strap with scrunch socks.
It was a fad that only lasted about a year or two, 1988 the Reebok cross type trainers became popular and I think maybe by 1989 or early 90s the Reebok pump boot, but again didn't last last, in the same way the converse weapons boot were popular as well, both the Reebok and the converse fell out of favour pretty quickly, well in the uk anyway!
Reebok did make sport shoes; specifically tennis shoes. They were awful; no lateral support. They just didn't "get" athletic shoes. They were still basically using their aerobic shoes for tennis. They were comfortable, but not good for tennis. I think this contributed significantly to their decline.
I owned a pair of Reebok basketball shoes in 2008 or 2009. I wore them every day. I've never had a pair of basketball shoes I liked more. Sadly, I can't remember the model. Otherwise, I'd try and buy it again.
I’m 24 and I love my Reebok Exo Fit high tops, they are in white leather but I love the look and feel it gives, so comfortable and stable.
Because by definition, the people who make the rules of a game win. Reebok will never gain new popularity. Chip is China's game, fashion is the USA's game, and style and perfection are the German game.
Bolton's football (soccer) team's stadium was sponsored and named Reebok Stadium for several years. The team has failed so badly it's now named after a local plastic sheet manurfacturer -Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Toughsheet.
At 18 years old I taught aerobics in New York City in the mid '80s and I don't think you guys really even understand the magnitude of the freestyle.. And then the freestyle high top!! We were teaching on cement floors with thin carpeting and dying from shin splints.. these didn't help 100%, but going from literally kids to Reebok freestyles was insane.. In New York City Reebok was literally giving them away to us instructors!!! They started in white but when the colors hit holy crap.. The letter was soft and supple and even just thinking about it now it was a great sneaker. And an amazing aerobic sneaker feeling a gap when there was none.
Reeboks were fashion before Nike was. You could wear them instead of ankle boots, because they had the same (ish) look, but offered more ankle support. They were HUGE when I was in college. They did something politically incorrect, I can't remember what, after which they fell off the map.
They lost because it is not an American company.
Nokia, Kodak, Blackberry ..etc lost because the company not originally from USA
Reebok used to be the one & only go to sneakers and me & everyone I new wore them and I don’t even remember when they lost their way especially to the B list Boys back then like PUMA (the Reebok Pumps had everyone losing their mind!).........& now you don’t hear anyone talking about them (I stayed faithful to the British Flag & Gum Soles! & I still got a couple of head turners on rotation the light grey brush suede with illuminous yellow stripes! (Ouchhhh!🥶) the soft leather Women’s workouts in every colour way definitely put Reebok on the female radar especially when Step aerobics started to become a massive market
I had pumps…..but as a kid growin up in Philly, in the 90s….the only sneak we wanted was The ANSWER, A.I.s
See, this is a problem. (lol) You seem to be implying that just because this or that part of culture existed (neon Reeboks!), it must be good. Nah. A lotttttttt of people didn't like a lot of this stuff. This is where "alternative music" of the 80s comes from (REM, etc.), among other phenomena.
6:25 Missed opportunity to bring up Reebok's finest cinematic appearance: the Bob-ombs wear Reeboks in the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie.
Or maybe it isn't that much of a missed opportunity. It's just the only Reebok-related trivia titbit I have to share with the comments section.
Adidas purposley placed Reebok in the back burner. Same as how Nike did to Converse. Both brand relegated to become retro brands. Adidas o their part took every bit of the marketshare, and squeezed the brand equity. I still wear Reebok, but the Walmart strategy and CrossFit focus I think is actually saving it. Theyre only selling apparel in Walmart and their footware is still solid.
I love that you dunked on Bury while calling it "Beuurry". YOu made it sound more exotic in my mind. I had Reeboks in 87, awesome shoes. They just had some great designs in the late 80s compared to the competition. Then they did virtually nothing to innovate as far as I remember. It's a design led industry innit?
Count me among the nostalgic millenial crowd. But being a nurse and a runner, I spend A LOT of time on my feet. So I'm pretty agnostic about style, in favor of performance and price. And I gotta say, if you shop around a little bit, you can find shoes that absolutely match brands like Nike in terms of performance, at about 1/3rd of the cost. Their Classics are a classic for a reason, and every now and then they put out a great, durable running shoe at a much better price than their competitors. I like 'em. They're kind of farty and anti-cool, but they're comfortable as hell and their o.g. styles don't miss.
Not to correct you on your history but Reebok was not doing well when Adidas bought them.. They discovered years later through accounting that the CEO of Reebok had been embezzling money and falsifying sales so Reebok was doing very bad before Adidas bought them and they CEO of Adidas didn't do his due diligence.
I am surprised Robert Smith didn't buy the company. I still like the designs of Reebok. I always hated Nike because they were (and still are) uncomfortable.
When I think of Reebok all I remember is Reebok pumps, Shaq attaq, Shaqnosis, the question 1’s, the answers 1-5.
@2:22 This advert has layer upon layer of Brittishness. Union Jacks*, they're selling a shoe called the Spitfire and the man is Daily Thompson - Olympic gold and world record setting decathlonist.
To me, they lost because they were inferior materials and stitching. Rebox always fell apart faster than adidas and nikes. I'm from Venezuela and grew up in the 80s-90s.
I've always personally preferred reebok, my sister Nike, and that comes down to the shape of our feet. We're both women with big feet, size 42, with her having really slim, long feet and me pretty damn wide feet, especially at my toes. That's how we both fell into that brand dichotomy, reebok consistently designed sneakers for wider feet, while Nike are slim and long in our experience. Even though we wear the same size, we cannot stand wearing each other's shoes 😅😂
They lost because of the Jordan brand and the popularity of basketball. Nike's were just cooler throughout the 90s. They had better designs that appealed to young people and those designs are still popular today with young people. Reebox just never get the attention of the sneaker heads. Nor did they appeal to the urban crowd the way other brands have. Even New Balance has a following in the skateboarding and hip hop cultures.
i fila soft spot for it in my palace.
Reebok and nike are decent brands.
But once i started using woodland (Canadian) shoes and jacket, it became my go to brand.
Woodland is practically indestructible, far superior quality product compared to Nike or Reebok.