More Videos
- Curt Schilling’s Videogame Company Goes Bust
- Collectors Wary Of Investing In Josh Hamilton
- Sergio Tacchini, Djokovic Shockingly Part Ways
- Congress Wants End to Sports Sponsorships by Military
- RGIII Signs Endorsement Deal With Sports Protection Company Evoshield
- Logic of Realignment Won’t Be Clear For a Decade
- Has Chesapeake’s Buying Of Thunder Tickets Inflated The Market?
- GNC, Vitamin Shoppe Keep DMAA Products in Stores
- Derby Winner "I’ll Have Another" Proves the Pitfalls of Handicapping
SPORTS BIZ SLIDESHOWS
SPORTS BIZ VIDEO
- Bloody Sock to Bloody Broke
- Olympic Flame on the Way to London
- Six Flags CEO on Profits
- Yankees for Sale?
- Andretti Racing Dynasty
- Behind Madison Square Garden
- David Faber's Jeopardy Win
- David Faber's 'Jeopardy' Victory
- Cramer's Mad Dash: Retail Stocks
- Minnesota Governor Signs Bill for $1 Billion Vikings Stadium
- Bloody Sock to Bloody Broke
DARREN ROVELL'S SPORTS INDEX
ABOUT SPORTS BIZ
Sports Biz
Text Size 
Reebok Holding On To Life
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
