![]() ![]() Reebok named Carl Yankowski president and chief executive officer of the brand in 1998, replacing former president Robert Meers. ![]() Step aerobics peaked in 1995 with 11.4 million people exercising in that style. ![]() 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. and demonstrating it at exercise studios. Miller promoted Step Reebok in person, touring the U.S. 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. Lorna and Peter Francis at San Diego State University. The Step was evaluated in physiology trials undertaken by Drs. 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. 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. By mid-decade, Reebok's sales were about $1 billion. ĭuring the 1980s Reebok began introducing sports clothing and accessories (alongside entering the college/pro sports arena), along with a line of children's athletic shoes called Weeboks. 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. In 1986, Reebok switched its logo from the Union Jack it had since its founding, to the vector logo-an abstract Union Flag streak across a race track-which mirrored the design of the side flashes of its shoes. 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. The brand established itself in professional tennis with the Newport Classic shoe, popularized by Boris Becker and John McEnroe, and the Revenge Plus, also known as the Club C. Fireman bought the English-based parent company in 1984, and the following year Reebok had its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RBK. The following year Reebok's sales were $13 million. In 1982, Reebok debuted the Reebok Freestyle aerobics shoe, the first athletic shoe designed for women. By 1981, Reebok reached more than $1.5 million in sales. Later that year, Fireman introduced three new shoes to the market at $60. The division became known as Reebok USA Ltd. ![]() Fireman had previously been an executive with his family business Boston Camping, and negotiated a deal to license and distribute the Reebok brand in the United States. In 1979, an American businessman named Paul Fireman took notice of Reebok at the Chicago NSGA (National Sporting Goods of America) Show. The name is Afrikaans for the grey rhebok, a type of African antelope. In 1958, in Bolton, two of the founder's grandsons, Jeff and Joe Foster, formed a companion company "Reebok", having found the name in a dictionary won in a sprint race by Joe as a boy. They were made famous by 100m Olympic champion Harold Abrahams in the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris. The company began distributing its shoes across the United Kingdom, which were worn by British athletes. For pioneering the use of spikes, the company's running pumps appear in the book Golden Kicks: The Shoes that changed Sport. Foster opened a small factory called Olympic Works, and gradually became famous among athletes for his "running pumps". Foster" in 1900 later he joined with his sons and changed the company name to J.W. After his ideas progressed, he founded his business " J.W. 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. ![]()
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