Not at first Sight!

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Life is not a spectator sport 1984

Everyone I talk to says; ‘Yeah Reebok, Aerobics’, ‘you got lucky there!’ or ‘that was easy’.  No way, it was a hard sell.  All Reebok’s customers were running stores, owned mainly by runners for runners.  Walk in with a white leather shoe for ‘women’ and speak the strange word of ‘Aerobics’?  most looked at you blank, some were just hostile!

When Paul Fireman had started to sell Reebok in the USA, he had the same issue; “ I don’t need you.” “ I have Nike, New Balance, Adidas.” “$60 for a running shoe”. Even with the Runner’s World Five Stars, it was uphill.  I will always appreciate just how hard and soul sapping those early days were for him.  The answer had been ‘Reebok Racing Club’ go around the retailer, connect with the clubs, sell mail order. Engage with news, sell them kit at a good price.  This had been the route to market, this built Reebok as a running brand. Ed Lussier had run the East Coast, Jim Van Dine the West.  Now the same concept was flipped to create the ‘Instructor Programme’. Contacting dance studios, getting product on instructors and letting them sell to their clients.  That was hard back breaking work, but it built Reebok.  It built the running business, built the aerobics business, then it built the fitness business.

Until, Denise Austin landed a slot on American Breakfast TV and finished her routine with the immortal line; “You can do this in the studio or at home” “bare feet or a pair of shoes like these!” She held her foot up to her beaming face and there was that Union Flag and the word REEBOK we had just been beamed into every home in America.  The rest you can say ‘is history’.

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Gum outsole, PVC side stripes, tissue thin leather toe, the original Freestyle.

The Freestyle too, was not an instant success, the shoe seen today is a subtle rework, done in 1984 of the original ’82  design.  The original shoes had a gum coloured sole, which was changed to white, pink and blue.  The vamp leather was specified on the first shoe at 1.2-1.4mm, this would tear on the vamp during lasting.  The white painted finish had to be buffed off the toe to get the sole to stick. Aggressive or careless workers simply cut through it.  A new softer leather at 1.4-1.6mm was backed up with a new lining that actually stuck to the leather.  Buffing was improved but still the rubber toes peeled from the upper, a constant bane.  Have you ever wondered why the side stripe is just stitched?  The first Freestyle had PVC stripes, that never stuck to the EVA sole, the answer just take off the PVC but leave the stitching.  This is something that would become a Reebok design que.

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Denise came to the UK at the end of 1993.

Denise Austin came over to the UK at the end of 1983, Reebok was taking off with double digit growth in America, all because of that little shoe.  Denise bless her was ill prepared for a UK winter.  And the lycra got covered up with sweat tops and Joggers, but still the trademark hugs and body builder pose got everyone talking.  The same tools that had worked in the states were put in place, Instructor Programme, print advertising, building the brand from the base up

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Unstructured uppers, were not new to Reebok, the World Ten from 1960.

.‘That shoe was a giant leap!’ I’m not sure of that, everyone at Reebok at the time knew or knew of Ron Hill and the World Ten.  It’s Kangaroo glove leather upper, punched with holes in the Vamp.  Joe Foster’s glove like spike pumps featured that soft leather vamp too. Freestyle leant heavily on heritage; the twist though was women!

© David Foster 2020