Why Reebok lost

In 1987, they were actually winning. How did it happen? And what went wrong?

More info and sources at bottom.

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Let's get into it! These are all affiliate links - some of these books are available free at Archive.org or your library. I will admit that I had to buy the Joe Foster book cause there's no digital version.

My beloved shoe:
https://amzn.to/47QyiMi

Joe Foster's memoir, Shoemaker:
https://amzn.to/3RfSd1W

I don't know what my deal was, but I was oddly affected by this book. He makes it pretty personal for a CEO memoir, and the scene - Bury in the 50s and 60s — just has a ton more interesting historical texture than many other memoirs. There were some sad family moments, a lot of fighting, and some bittersweet triumphs. Crazy book.

Phil Knight's Shoe Dog:
https://amzn.to/3GekgIK

I didn't actually reread this fully for this vid — just skimmed and remembered it. As I was looking through it, Knight came off a bit more likeable than I remembered. But then again, the end of the book is all about the profound insights of "The Bucket List" movie so....I don't know. I think I know who I'm siding with in the sneaker wars.

Swoosh: The Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There
https://amzn.to/47prA06

I mainly mined this for aerobics/Reebok factoids. It did leave me with the impression that my take was correct though.

David Foster's blog:
https://fostersfamousshoes.wordpress....
This blog confirmed my general affection for the Foster clan and helped me check some facts. Again, I have developed a bit of a parasocial relationship with the Fosters at this point and thus feel mega-guilty for saying Reebok was Paul Fireman's creation but...yeah. Anyway, fun blog — lots of pictures and stuff I didn't feel comfortable using in the video but you could check it out.

Harvard Business School Case Studies:
I needed hard facts and I found them in these case studies about Reebok and Nike, respectively. But dang, it cost money! I was a bit frustrated by that. But I think this video would have been way worse without money stats - too general and overreaching.
https://store.hbr.org/product/reebok-...
https://store.hbr.org/product/phil-kn...

Newspapers - I just searched a ton of newspapers for Freestyle mentions. And ads mainly came from YouTube and eBay.

Oh, here's a profile of Angel Martinez. I was super lucky I found it because I said his name right in the video thanks to it. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/time...

I think that's it. Have a good one.