The story
Founded by Joseph William Foster in 1895.1
Early years
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". The company began distributing its shoes across the United Kingdom, which were worn by British athletes. They were made famous by 100m Olympic champion Harold Abrahams in the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris.
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. The name is Afrikaans for the grey rhebok, a type of African antelope.
In 1979, American businessman Paul Fireman took notice of Reebok at the Chicago NSGA (National Sporting Goods of America) Show. 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. The division became known as Reebok USA Ltd. 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, and Fireman bought the English-based parent company in 1984. Officially an American company in 1985, Reebok had its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RBK and was renamed Reebok International Limited.
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. The company began expanding from tennis and aerobics shoes to running and basketball throughout the mid to late 1980s, the most significant segment of the athletic footwear industry. 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.
In 1986, Reebok changed the company logo it had used since its founding, from the flag of the United Kingdom 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 switch signaled the transition of the company into a performance brand as it began licensing deals with professional athletes in the NBA and NFL. Reebok also began developing sports clothing and accessories, and introduced a line of children's athletic shoes called Weeboks. It acquired Rockport for $118.5 million in 1986 and Avia for $180 million a year later. By mid-decade, Reebok's sales were about $1 billion, and it overtook Nike, Inc. as the largest athletic shoe manufacturer in the US before losing the top position in 1988.
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.
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2000s
In 2001, Reebok hired Peter Arnell with the Arnell Group as its lead marketing agency, which created several advertising campaigns, including a successful series of Terry Tate commercials. The agency also helped develop the Yao Ming line, and the fashion-oriented Rbk brand. In December, 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 2016, Reebok announced it would move its global headquarters from Canton to Boston with intentions to lay off about 300 employees as part of the move.
Reebok continued to expand in sports in the 2000s. In tennis, Reebok signed Venus Williams in 1995 to a five-year, $12 million contract when she was 15, later renewing the partnership in December 2000 with a reported $40 million, five-year deal described at the time as the richest endorsement contract ever for a female athlete; the company also held endorsement deals with Andy Roddick (2000–2005), Michael Chang, and Patrick Rafter. In soccer, Reebok manufactured kits for Liverpool F.C. from 1996 to 2006, Bolton Wanderers (whose home ground was named the Reebok Stadium from 1997 to 2014), and Manchester City, while endorsing players including Ryan Giggs, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Andriy Shevchenko, and Iker Casillas. Reebok also held league-wide licensing agreements during this period with the NFL (2002–2011), NBA (2001–2006), NHL, MLB, and MLS.
Reebok acquired official National Hockey League sponsor CCM in 2004. The company began manufacturing ice hockey equipment under the CCM and Reebok brands. It phased out the CCM name on NHL authentic and replica jerseys, using the Reebok logo since 2005. In March 2005, Reebok signed Canadian junior hockey star Sidney Crosby to a multi-year, multimillion-dollar endorsement deal ahead of his entry into the NHL, making the 17-year-old the highest-paid hockey equipment endorser at the time. CCM became Reebok-CCM Hockey in 2007. Reebok moved most of its hockey equipment lines to CCM after 2015.
2010s
In 2010, under the ownership of Adidas, Reebok announced a 10-year partnership with CrossFit, becoming the official footwear and apparel provider of the CrossFit Games. In 2011, Reebok launched the Nano, the first shoe specifically designed for CrossFit, developed with input from CrossFit athletes to support high-impact movements, weightlifting, and short-distance running; the franchise has since gone through more than a dozen iterations and is widely regarded as "the shoe of CrossFit." In December 2014, Reebok signed a six-year deal with the UFC to become the promotion's exclusive global outfitter, a landmark partnership extending the brand's training credibility into combat sports and mixed martial arts. In January 2015, Reebok launched its "Be More Human" brand campaign, a fully integrated marketing initiative encouraging individuals to push their limits and reach their full potential through fitness; the campaign debuted with a Super Bowl pre-game television spot and introduced the Reebok Delta logo, representing physical, mental, and social change. In November 2017, Reebok announced a long-term partnership with British fashion designer Victoria Beckham, with the first Reebok x Victoria Beckham collection launching in 2018.
In 2017, Adidas sold CCM to a Canadian private equity firm, Birch Hill Equity Partners, for around $110 million.
2020s
Reebok began collaborating with French luxury fashion house Maison Margiela in 2020, debuting the split-toe Tabi Instapump Fury at Maison Margiela's Spring/Summer 2020 Artisanal show during Paris Couture Week. In 2022, Reebok was acquired by Authentic Brands Group in a deal valued at approximately $2.5 billion (€2.1 billion). Under Authentic's ownership, the brand has publicly announced a return to sport, signing athletes and launching products across basketball, golf, tennis, football, and hockey.
In October 2023, Reebok appointed Shaquille O'Neal as President of Reebok Basketball and Allen Iverson as Vice President, marking the brand's strategic return to performance basketball after more than a decade away from the category. Later that month, Reebok signed LSU national champion Angel Reese in the brand's first major name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal; Reese later debuted Reebok's first new performance basketball sneaker since the early 2010s, the "Engine A," in 2024 and released her signature shoe, the Angel Reese 1, in September 2025. In December 2024, Reebok and the WNBA announced a multi-year agreement designating Reebok as an authorized footwear supplier for the league.
In December 2024, Reebok announced a long-term partnership with two-time US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau and his LIV Golf team Crushers GC, naming him the official face of Reebok Golf apparel and footwear and introducing the Nano Golf performance shoe. In 2025, Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson was announced as a Reebok ambassador as part of the brand's return to hockey.
In May 2025, Reebok signed Detroit-native and Arkansas Razorbacks guard Darius Acuff Jr. to an NIL deal, later expanding it into a signature shoe agreement, making Acuff the first NCAA men's basketball player to receive a signature shoe deal from a major U.S. brand while still in college. In January 2026, Reebok signed Colombian singer Karol G as a global brand ambassador, naming her the face of the brand's "Born Classic. Worn for Life." campaign to mark the relaunch of the Reebok Classics line.
In March 2026, Reebok announced partnerships with Serbian footballer Dušan Vlahović and Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah, coinciding with the debut of the Reebok Sidewinder, the brand's new on-field football boot. In May 2026, Reebok signed Polish tennis player Magdalena Fręch and launched the Phase Evo, its first performance tennis shoe in nearly two decades.
Adidas ownership
Following an intellectual property lawsuit in August 2005, Adidas acquired Reebok as a subsidiary, but maintained 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 included 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. The 10-year CrossFit partnership, which ran through 2020, established Reebok as a foundational brand within the functional fitness community and gave the company deep credibility with training athletes worldwide. In 2011, Reebok launched the Nano, the first shoe specifically designed for CrossFit, developed with input from CrossFit athletes to support high-impact movements, weightlifting, and short-distance running; the Nano became known as "the shoe of CrossFit" and has been continuously updated through more than a dozen iterations. In 2011, Reebok debuted the CrossFit delta symbol on the brand's fitness apparel line. As it lost contracts to make sportswear for professional and college teams (its last uniform rights contract, with the NHL, ended in 2017), Reebok began repositioning itself as a fitness-oriented brand, just as it had been during the 1980s and early 1990s.
In 2013, Reebok announced another fitness partnership with Les Mills International. The agreement included Reebok footwear and clothing integration into Les Mills' fitness programs and media marketing. By July 2013, the red delta sign began appearing on Reebok's fitness collections. The brand announced it was phasing out the vector logo and replacing it with the delta sign, the company's second logo change in more than 120 years. The delta symbol is meant to symbolize three pillars of positive self-change—mental, physical and social—as Reebok increases its presence in the fitness industry with yoga, dance, aerobics and CrossFit.
In December 2014, Reebok signed a six-year deal with the UFC to become the promotion's exclusive global outfitter, a landmark partnership extending the brand's training credibility into combat sports and mixed martial arts. Together, the CrossFit, Les Mills, and UFC partnerships, along with the Nano franchise, built Reebok's equity within the global training community over the course of the 2010s. Following a successful re-release of many of its 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 that consumers still identified with them rather than the red delta logo, although the delta would continue to be used on some fitness lines.
Authentic Brands Group ownership
In February 2021, Adidas announced plans to divest Reebok after analyzing options and expected a hit of about €250 million to operating profit from costs to sell or spin-off the business. In July 2021, Adidas shortlisted bidders for the brand, the finalist companies being Wolverine World Wide and Authentic Brands Group (ABG) 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 ABG would acquire the Reebok brand from Adidas for at least $2.5 billion. On March 1, 2022, the acquisition was finalized.
Under Authentic's ownership, Reebok's annual retail sales grew to $5 billion by 2025, and the brand signed athlete partnerships and launched products across basketball, golf, tennis, football, and hockey, while also expanding its Classics and lifestyle lines through fashion collaborations and cultural partnerships.
As of 2026, Reebok's licensed operating partners include Galaxy Universal for the United States and global product creation; GB Brands Europe Limited, a joint venture between Galaxy Universal and the Batra Group, for Europe and the United Kingdom; Slam Jam for the United States, Canada, and Central and Eastern Europe; NewRee Sports for mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau; and Brand Collective for Australia and New Zealand.
On October 10, 2025, a collective of runners presented a letter from 367 Palestinian sports teams to the headquarters of Reebok, urging the company to retract its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association (IFA). This situation has placed Reebok in a challenging position. As per a statement issued by the Israel Football Association (IFA), it has been reported that Reebok requested its local equipment supplier, MSG Group, to eliminate its logo from the uniforms of the Israeli team. Shortly thereafter, the union declared that the request had been put on hold following discussions between IFA President Moshe Zuares and representatives from Reebok and MSG Group.
From Wikipedia’s article on Reebok, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4