Super Show (1978-79)

Pavement artists a new range of Reeboks for 1979; Starker, Cordova, aztec and Midas.

Throughout the seventies Reebok remained very much a family firm, with my Mother, Aunt and my father’s younger brother, Uncle John all working for the company.  My own apprenticeship started early, with school holidays spent making boxes, cementing soles and lacing shoes.  Weekends were adventures to muddy fields and hillsides, selling shoes to athletes at races.  

In the mid 70’s the fitness running boom took off in America and along with it a new competitor, NIKE. A young fresh business with revolutionary technical and design ideas founded by the legendary Coach Bill Bowerman and lead by one of his athletes Phil Knight.  They had started out selling Onitsuka Tiger but had gone their own way and now came to the UK with amazing shoes like the Waffle Racer and Tailwind.  

My dad had been going to the Super Show in Atlanta every year since 1965.  He came home with these new shoes and said: “We need something like this, if we don’t have it, these guys are going to kill us!” 

Jeff did the designing  and Joe picked the colours, inspired by the new Internationalist it would be blue with a yellow side stripe.  By late ’78 the range of new ‘Nike killer’ shoes  featuring the Roadstar, Waffle inspired square cut heel, rubber soled shoes were ready: Cordova, Starmaker, Midas Racer, Inca spike and the legendary Aztec trainer.  They were in Joe’s bag as he headed back to the Super Show at the beginning of 1979.  

Aztec, one step ahead…

Joe had a fantastic reaction to his new collection: “ The buyer from Kmart  saw the shoes and said he’d give me an order for 25,000 pairs of Aztecs if I could drop the price.” “ That was six months work for the factory, we only made 1,000 pairs a week.”  

There was no way Reebok could do it, they had just begun to buy Reebok branded shoe from a company in South Korea, HS Corporation.  Another Super Show contact, who also made shoes for Nike.  ‘The Orient Express’ was the right price. But Kmart wanted the Aztec. 

© David Foster (2020)