The Shoe that saved Nike®!

Adidas and Nike could no longer sit it out, they had waved off Aerobics as a fitness fad that would fade, colourful women’s shoes were athleisure and took market from KEDS and Converse, it wasn’t a serious market, they reasoned.  Fitness hit them hard, double digit falls in sales and rising inventory of their long-term best sellers, filled up warehouses and soaked up cash faster than they could turn off the tap, they were both in trouble.

In Search of colour (2004 to 2022).

I look at Frostline™ as Grubs® equivalent to the freestyle high-top.  I often think about colour matching those wool samples  from Benetton® to get the Leather and EVA to match 35 years ago, when I am matching Rubber and nylon swatches for the next season.  We pick our colours from the same colour matching service Reebok® used after the Benetton® days.  Grubs® has a young colourful fun boot for active women in the outdoors, just like Reebok had her in the studio. Funny how the world turns in circles!

All Change (Korea May ’85)

1985 was going to be a step change in Reebok design, not that any of us had made that decision or even a conscious thought to say we would do that, it was much more a gradual thing as drawings were drawn and sketches sketched.

‘Guida come un Italiano!’ (Feb-October 85)

‘Calzaturificio Di Varese’ or shoemakers of Varese who had been bought by mega brand of the ’80’s Benetton. Their vision of Reebok was athletic fashion and the plan was to take Italy with colour.