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Before Reebok became a global sportswear giant, it was just Joe Foster and a vision. One shaped in a small UK workshop and fuelled by persistence, not funding. In this episode, Joe breaks down the early days of building Reebok from the ground up: cold calls, missed opportunities, and the moment aerobics unexpectedly catapulted the brand into the mainstream.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:46 Turning 90, family history and surviving against the odds
04:26 Brand building, luck and why fun matters most
06:40 Why sports brands thrived through recessions
09:27 The innovation that started with spiked running shoes
11:48 Leaving the family business and starting from zero
14:15 Launching Mercury Sports and the early branding struggle
16:25 Losing the Mercury name and the birth of Reebok
18:50 How a childhood dictionary led to the Reebok name
22:23 The move from athletic spikes to casual sneakers
26:55 Breaking into UK market through local clubs
29:57 Club-level selling and dominating UK athletes
31:56 Choosing white space over battling Adidas and Nike
33:23 First trip to America and navigating early export failures
37:47 The Runners World five-star rating breakthrough
43:52 Choosing Paul Fireman over Kmart and scaling US reach
49:28 Reebok's biggest challenge: the EVA foam failure
52:15 Crisis with a UK distributor and surviving with direct sales
56:05 The rise of aerobics and Reebok’s pivot to women’s fitness
59:26 Becoming number one globally with an unexpected audience
1:04:23 Expanding into tennis, basketball and new categories
1:13:05 Going up against Nike, using celebrities, and staying innovative
1:17:00 3D-printed AI shoes and what they reveal about new brand strategy
1:24:03 Losing momentum, big changes and the need for reinvention
1:31:53 Advice on building stories, visibility and modern branding
1:37:29 UK vs Dubai: Entrepreneurial energy and global opportunity
1:43:22 Final advice for founders
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