Noah Cieklinski
SPRT 440
3/6/19
Reebok
Reebok is a one of the most popular sportswear which is based out of the United Kingdom. In 1958, Joeseph William Foster founded the company and started off making athletic footwear. Now, today Reebok manfactures shoes for sports, sportswear, accessories for men, woman and kids. Currently Reebok’s headquarters are location in Boston, Massachusetts. Reebok has won the trust of the trust and loyalty of most sports enthuisets around the world. With close relationships with many major sporting events through endorsments and sponsorships, it has shaped Reebok’s idtenity today.
SWOT
Strengths
Reebok has a very wide range of products that meets many customer needs. Within each product range, they have products for specific sports needs, whuch tragets nich sub-segments within each category. Each type of footwear Reebok manufactors has features that suit their needs, this has always been a big selling point for the company. For example, their Crossfit athletic footwear is designed to provide the best running expericene to athletes who are first timers or trained professionals.
Weakness
Reebok does have a wide variety of products for its customers. The company has been hugely unsuccessful in educating customers on these products. This results in the brand today becoming associated to mostly sneakers. The sportswear industry is so competitive that brands try their best to control their interests. The downfall to that is that Reebok used tp be considered to be premium and are now categorized with local or reginal brands who help contribute to the mass market. This has a negative effect on Reebok’s brand image.
Oppurtunities
Reebok has oppurunties to the company can capitalize on to increase its returns. Reebok was once the global leader in sportswear, now is behind arch-rival Nike. But, Reebok has big plans to revamp itself by exploring new categories such as women’ specialty sportswear, kids shoes and ethnic designs. Within fitness today, there are various niche categories such as danxing shoes, aerobics shoes, and combat shoes. Reebok has a presence in most categories along these lines. What they need to do more of is educate customers on why these specific shoes fit a certain need. This will result in growth of such categories of sportswear.
Threats
The manin compettors are threats to Reebok such as Nike, Adidas, Converse, New Balance and Puma. Designer sports brands like Addidas and Reebok face the threat from cheap imitation whuch are then sold to customers on the internet for a fraction of the cost of an authentic product. Customers who aren’t concered with product features and just want to fit in the the style usually resort to these cheap imitations. Ben Askren, who made his debut at UFC 235 spoke out about the low pay he received under UFC’s Reebok Athlete Outfiting Program. “When I thought about it, I probably should have negotiated the Reebok money up ’cause they’re not paying me enough. I think it’s $3,500 only? It’s pretty terrible” (Forbes). This does not look good on Reebok’s side when fighters making their debut are disappointed about pay. It is a threat to Reebok because Ben is part of the future of the UFC. Assuming Reebok will be looking for business in the future, they will need to be aware of these threats.