Credit: Lisa Lake/Getty Images for Reebok
By Will Novosedlik
Looks like Reebok has a new president. Of basketball, that is.
The irreverent sports culture brand recently named longtime partner, and legendary Hall of Famer, Shaquille O’Neal as the president of Reebok Basketball. In a joint announcement, Reebok also appointed former pro basketball player Allen Iverson as vice president.
These are newly created positions, coming hard on the heels of Reebok’s announcement regarding its long-term strategy to re-emerge into team sport and focus on the brand’s global commitment to performance basketball.
“Both guys are iconic to the Reebok brand, especially when you think back to the late 90s and early 2000s, when they were putting up MVP calibre seasons,” says Reebok’s general manager for Canada, Dave Gladstone, about the appointments and what the roles will entail. “It’s about authenticating ourselves back into basketball in preparation for our launch in 2025 of a new performance basketball product.”
Does that mean that either of them is going to be sitting in the Reebok offices 60 hours a week crunching P&L statements? Probably not. Reebok sees O’Neal as leading strategy and the visio, as well as helping craft partnerships with other companies, foundations and athletes. Iverson’s role will be more focused on bringing the product to life with Reebok’s new basketball range in 2025. According to Gladstone, Iverson will be a little bit more executional.
“Allen’s going be involved in grassroots initiatives to make sure we’re connecting with local communities,” shares Gladstone. “He’s going to be very hands-on in player recruitment and activations. You’re going to see his face out in the market, helping us reclaim our rightful place as a leader in basketball.”
Reebok has not made much noise on the basketball court over the last few years. Why? “When you think back 20-plus years ago, Reebok was sitting up on top of the pyramid with Nike across all four big North American sports. We had the dominant position in basketball,” says Gladstone. “But then the brand became more niche. It became very focused on CrossFit, which is very male dominated. All about tough fitness with things like weightlifting and elite training. The brand pulled out of basketball and hockey. Our deal with the UFC is a great example of how that strategy manifested.”
Gladstone says the brand’s top priority today is driving its “Reebok Unleash” strategy and the company’s new objective is to be the number one athletic lifestyle brand in the world. As anyone in brand-building will tell you, going from a niche as narrow as UFC to a much broader position across many sports is one of the more difficult transformations to achieve. Says Gladstone, “Our big push starts in 2024, followed by the launch of the basketball range in 2025 to reclaim our rightful place in the world of sport. So that’s why all of this is coming to life now after being relatively quiet for the last few years.”
After the basketball launch, Reebok’s return to performance sports will encompass running, golf and tennis, as well as soccer, the latter aligning with the North American World Cup.
In addition to these two appointments, Reebok has announced an official partnership with college basketball champion and fashion superstar Angel Reese – its first signing under the direction of Shaquille O’Neal as president of basketball. “She’s currently just started her junior year at LSU,” explains Gladstone. “She made a ton of waves last season. An electric player, she is probably the best female collegiate basketballer to watch. She’s also a very outspoken, colourful character. She is perfectly aligned with our top brand values with her attitude and rebellious nature.” As an aside, Shaq is himself an LSU alumnus. “They have a great relationship,” says Gladstone. “She calls him ‘Uncle Shaq’.”
Reese has already been positioned at the forefront of Reebok lifestyle, fashion and performance product stories this season. A big part of her remit will be to help the brand expand its footprint in the female sport and performance product category.
The last component of the new and expanded marketing strategy lies in the area of collabs and begins with Japanese clothing retailer Beams. “We obviously have our usual suspects, whether it’s a really cool street wear brand or sport brand,” Gladstone says. “But we also like to think outside of the box and gain access to markets, communities and followings that we don’t normally gain access to. There are things we want to accomplish in our regular brand, but that, for whatever reason, we can’t do. Beams is about bringing American lifestyle to Japan. As a collaborator the brand has a truly authentic, unique view on the Japanese market. Partnering with them gives us a bit of that Japanese lens on North America, Europe and the rest of the world.”
And then there’s Milk Makeup, a cruelty-free, vegan cosmetics and skincare company. “It started as a design studio of emerging creatives. So, right away that appeals to our hype team or our collabs team just because we know we’re going to get an interesting spin on our products,” Gladstone goes on. “And, as importantly, we share their brand values about bringing super clean products to the market.”
It’s all in aid of Reebok strengthening its position as rebellious and cheeky. “Like I mentioned, we went down a real ‘tough fitness’ path for a while, and it was successful. And even in that market we were a little edgy, a little out of the box. We try not to take ourselves too seriously, but we’re here to compete, and that is really what sets us apart.”
