#219 Joe Foster: How Reebok Was Really Built
Description
Welcome to episode 219 of Sports Management Podcast.
Today's guest is Joe Foster - the founder of Reebok. At 90 years old, he's sharing the real origin story for the first time. From hand-made spiked shoes to billion-dollar global dominance, this is one of the greatest sports business journeys ever told.
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Time stamps:
00:00 Growing up during World War II
05:45 Winning races with spiked shoes at age 8
08:08 Grandfather invents the first spiked running shoe
17:00 Walking away from the family footwear company
18:49 Building Reebok inside a collapsed brewery
25:15 Creating direct-to-athlete distribution
29:32 Naming Reebok from a dictionary
35:15 First failed attempt entering America
41:08 Runner's World five-star ratings change everything
43:31 Birth of the Reebok aerobics shoe
46:59 Why Joe exited Reebok
57:10 Turning lawsuits into brand advantages
01:05:05 Joe's 3 rules of entrepreneurship
01:09:06 Meeting celebrities & reaching global #1
01:12:19 Why he wrote his book to correct history
01:13:00 Outro
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