Word: firemanning
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...once in a long time, Fireman can afford to gloat--and even hint that Reebok might again have a shot at unseating Nike, the champion of footwear. The roster of top athletic talent and deals with the NFL and the NBA have turned Reebok from an also-ran into a contender for domination of the athletic-apparel market. Sure, Nike owns 36% of the U.S. sneaker business right now, compared with Reebok's 11%. But the league deals represent a long-term threat to the Swoosh. For one thing, it means that if Michael Jordan returns to the game...
Reebok's fall and rise are a classic tale of the wonders of the entrepreneurial world. Fireman was selling sports equipment for his father's business when in 1979, during a Chicago trade show, he became impressed by a hand-sewn leather sneaker called Reebok, named after a type of African gazelle and marketed by the heralded British athletic-shoe company J.W. Foster & Sons (a family-owned company that made the running shoes worn in the 1924 Olympics by the athletes celebrated in Chariots of Fire). Fireman bought the U.S. distribution rights to Reebok, and by 1984 had dropped...
...idea of entrepreneurs running their own companies. Instead, professional managers came into vogue, so that at places like Apple, Lotus and even Ben & Jerry's, the founding fathers stepped, or were eased, aside. At Reebok, which had begun an aggressive push into foreign markets, the board feared that Fireman might finally be in over his head...
...core recreational-fitness customers to make sneakers in more competitive sports categories like baseball, basketball and soccer, where such rivals as Nike, Adidas and New Balance were already slugging it out. "Women started feeling like we had lost track of them," says David Perdue, who was brought in by Fireman this year to run Reebok's main lines of business, sneakers and apparel. "And kids too found us not to be relevant." As declining sales forced the company to cut back on R. and D., the styling of Reeboks across the board fell out of favor. John Shanley, an analyst...
...anymore. Back in December 1999, Fireman--who with his wife Phyllis owns about a 20% stake in Reebok--won the board's approval for a turnaround plan. At the heart of his strategy was a return to the company's roots--sharp, provocative design. In addition, he began pushing innovation from his engineers. They came up with Reebok's DMX technology, a sole containing numerous air channels for cushioned comfort, and Traxtar, a line of shoes for kids that contain built-in computer chips and motion sensors that measure the wearer's running speed and jumping height. "Most people...