More Videos
- Is Super Bowl Halftime Act Too Old?
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- NBA D-League On The Rise
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Boise State Stock Plan: An Early Success
- Dollar Signs Seen In Young "Buck" Jennings
- Iverson Wasn't A Popular "Answer"
- My Top 10 Marketing Ideas For Winless Nets
- Airlines Add 'Super Bowl' Tax
RSS FEED
- U.S. Stocks Fall on Dubai Worries
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Strategists on Dubai: Avoid 'Rash Moves' Now
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Dubai Stock Market Fear Has 'Legs': Dennis Gartman
- Obama's Emission Reduction Pledge Paints Future for Autos
- Is Super Bowl Halftime Act Too Old?
- Surprising Options Trades in TiVo Shares
- EA Sports Hopes to Pump Up Sales Through Pop-Up Locations
- Abu Dhabi Will Aid Debt-Fraught Dubai 'Case by Case'
- Banks With The Biggest Exposure to The UAE
- Dubai's Debt Woes Signal New Era for Creditors
- Next Week: Cash In Now Or Wait For A Santa Rally?
- Dubai Stock Selloff May Bring Buying Opportunity
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Big US Banks May Be Forced to Raise Capital: Bove
- Bank of America Amends Pay for Senior Executives
- Tiger Woods Out of Hospital After Accident
Sports Biz
Text Size 
In August 2005, Adidas bought Reebok for $3.8 billion. The idea was simple. Combine Reebok’s strengths in the United States with the strength of adidas worldwide and build a global company that would beat Nike [NKE
Loading...
()
] as the No. 1 shoe and apparel brand.
Well, here we are three and half years later, and aside from Reebok’s logo appearing on NFL jerseys, the most important initiative the brand has going for it is Jukari. It’s a new women’s fitness program that Reebok is pitching along with the endorsement of Cirque du Soleil. It seems innovative, but this isn’t 1987, when Reebok briefly passed Nike by selling women’s fitness.
If Jukari doesn’t work, the Reebok brand is going to be on life support. Pretty amazing when you think about the fact that adidas CEO Herbert Hainer called the purchase of Reebok “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Now it’s probably a big regret.
When adidas purchased Reebok, adidas’ share of the US footwear market was nine percent. Today, remarkably, adidas and Reebok combine for the same percentage (9 percent) of the market, according to SportsOneSource analyst Matt Powell. Nike’s share of the market, Powell notes, has grown 7.5 percent since the merger went down. Today, excluding its licensed product business, Reebok is now a $600 million company.
Reebok is doing the right thing with Jukari. Build a totally proprietary workout connected to the brand that allows the company to try to pick up some momentum after quarter after quarter of steady decline.
The problem, many insiders say, is that Reebok didn’t have any particularly great proprietary technology or ideas when adidas bought the company, which made the purchase price premium hard to justify.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes