At ETRetail Great India Retail Summit 2026, Joe Foster, co-founder of Reebok, traced the brand’s DNA back to 1895, long before performance marketing and influencer collaborations became retail buzzwords.
“My grandfather was born in 1880. At 15, he made his first pair of running shoes,” Foster said, setting the tone for a keynote that blended history with hard business lessons.
The origin story began not with a branding strategy, but with curiosity. Foster’s grandfather, a cobbler by training, repaired cricket boots fitted with spikes.
“He thought, if spikes help cricketers grip better, why not runners?” Foster recounted. The first prototype “fell apart,” but persistence paid off. “He’s now credited with inventing the spiked running shoe.”
By 1904, the commercial breakthrough had arrived. “A runner called Alfred Shrubb broke four world records in my grandfather’s shoes,” Foster said. “He was using influencers back in 1904.”
Long before athlete endorsements became a formalized strategy, JW Foster was seeding products with top performers, a model modern sports brands still rely on.
Advertising, too, was bold for its time. “He ran an advert saying if anyone thought JW Foster’s shoes weren’t the best they’d ever worn, he’d give them £100,” Foster noted. “That would probably be £10,000 today.”
In an era without television or digital media, newspapers were the only channel, yet the brand understood the power of confidence-led marketing.
The First World War disrupted momentum. “They stopped making running shoes and started repairing army boots,” Foster said, recalling family stories of his father washing mud off soldiers’ boots. But by 1920, the business had regained scale.
“He supplied all the British athletes at the Antwerp Olympics,” Foster shared.
The company’s client roster extended to leading football clubs, including Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester City.
By 1924, the brand’s shoes were on the feet of Olympic champions Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, immortalized in the film Chariots of Fire.
“That film really immortalised them,” Foster said, underscoring how storytelling cements sporting legacy.
Reebok itself was formally founded in 1958 by Foster and his brother. “When we started in 1958, we had no idea what my grandfather had achieved,” he admitted. The rediscovery of that heritage later became a strategic asset for the brand.
Today, as Reebok sharpens its focus back on performance, Foster sees continuity in fundamentals. “The products have changed so much,” he said, referring to upcoming Spring/Summer 2027 lines. “But when we talk about my grandfather, that’s where it all started.”
For retailers and brand builders in the room, the subtext was clear that innovation, athlete advocacy, bold marketing, and resilience through disruption are not new-age concepts. They are enduring playbooks, if executed with conviction.
“The best way to sell a product is still to give it to the best athletes,” Foster reminded the audience. Over a century later, that principle continues to define global sports retail.
