Whether you know of his name or not, Joe Foster has affected every single sneakerhead in one way or another. An absolute OG in the industry, he and his brother Jeff started Reebok back in 1958 with the idea of creating the best running shoes ever made. The result? A company that's now known across the globe with a story that will be told to many for generations to come.
As part of our latest "Under The Influence" segment, we sat down with Joe Foster himself to discuss how a small British company completely dominated the world, the brand's humble beginnings, as well as his latest book Shoemaker that launches on October 1st!
How did you get started in the footwear business? It was in the 'blood'. I was born on my grandfather's birthday on 18th May 1935, some 18 months after he died. Credited with inventing the spiked running shoe in 1895, my grandfather also made these running shoes for all three 1920s athletes in the film Chariots of Fire.
Who came up with starting Reebok? My grandfather founded J.W. Foster and Sons in 1900, as requests for his spiked running pumps turned his small cobblers business into that of a world-famous sports shoe maker. My father James (Jim) and Uncle John (Bill) took over the business, with my brother Jeff joining the family firm in 1948, and myself in 1952.
However, both Jeff and I were conscripted to do National Service in 1953, returning to Fosters two years later only to find a business that was in stagnation as we discovered that Jim and Bill's relationship had descended into feuding. Nothing Jeff and I attempted could heal this rift, prompting the need to leave Fosters and set up our own company.
Maybe we had learned from our father and uncle, but Jeff and I worked together for many years until Jeff's early death in 1980 without any serious disagreement.
What does the word "Reebok" mean? Reebok is a small South African Gazelle - a name I found in a dictionary that I won in an 80 yards sprint race in 1943. However, the reason I was leafing through my dictionary was brought about when, on the advice of our accountant, I sought to register the name Mercury.
After starting up with this name, we quickly found out that it was already registered as a trademark of Lotus & Delta, a British Shoe Corporation company. We were offered the name for £1,000, which back in 1960 was beyond the pocket of our small two-man business
Looking back at Reebok's rich history, is there a single moment that you're most proud of? For 10 years, I had been trying to break into the American sports shoe market by attending the National Sports Goods of America. I needed a distributor, and after six failed attempts I met Paul Fireman at the 1979 NSGA show.
Since my first visit to America in 1968, the growth of running in the US had been massive, fuelled by Runners World Magazine and the growth of Nike . Every year, Runner's World would publish their rating results of the latest offerings from sports shoe manufacturers. All of them were either American based or were big enough to have distribution. We didn't, but I had designed the Aztec , a road training shoe as part of "The Gold Range" for the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Canada with 1979 Runner's World ratings in mind.
Paul Fireman, who with his brother and brother-in-law, was the CEO of a small camping distribution business located in Boston and he was interested, but before committing, he needed Reebok to get a 5 star rating from Runner's World. This would give him immediate access to the market.
After a period of time, the Aztec achieved the 5 star rating, along with our other two shoes, the Midas, a road racing shoe, and the Inca, our track spike. With three 5 star shoes, we achieved that breakthrough to the US market. Although there were many previous and post achievements to be proud of, this was my proudest moment.
As one of the only major British footwear brands did you ever have any doubts on whether you’d be able to break into other countries? The US market is the biggest and most influential market globally. Previous to the US achievement, Reebok had small distributions in Canada and other Commonwealth countries, plus Belgium and France. But the US was the key to our global expansion
Reebok have always placed women at the forefront, what does it mean to be the first in the industry to celebrate female role models? This was an incredible achievement for which Angel Martinez must be credited. Angel was a tech rep for Reebok in California and became intrigued with the new aerobic classes his wife Frankie was attending with her girlfriends.
He decided to join her to check out what was going on and to experience the feeling of exercise and music. At the time, the girls loved it and Angel could see this was almost exclusively attracting women. He also observed that the class were wearing a mixture of footwear and even some took part in bare feet. Angel imagined a white glove leather shoe with a cushioned rubber sole, giving birth to the Freestyle silhouette.
If you had to choose, what are your three favourite Reebok models, and why? My choice starts with the Aztec, which brought us entry into the US market and introduced the Roadstar sole, which I designed in 1978 and is still the iconic choice for Reebok Classics.
Next has to be the World Ten, a special lightweight road racing shoe. Built initially for Ron Hill, he not only wore it breaking the world ten mile record, but also won the Boston Marathon in record time with these on his feet.
Thirdly, it has to be the Freestyle, which uniquely became the woman's sports shoe and propelled Reebok to become the number one sports brand.
Your book Shoemaker is finally releasing on October 1st! Can you tell us a little bit about it? My book Shoemaker tells you about my family history in the development of sports footwear through the successes and failures of the J.W. Foster and Sons business. From my early years growing up and the many experiences throughout the start-up of Mercury and Reebok in 1958, to my retirement in 1989, it takes you through the many problems that we faced, as well as my own personal challenges too.
How have you been keeping busy over quarantine? Apart from the many inconveniences that we are all experiencing, my wife and I have been fortunate in being able to spend a few months in a very quiet part of France. This allowed us the opportunity to work with my Literary Agent A M Heath and the publisher of my book Simon & Schuster to prepare for its release on October 1st. I am now back in the UK at the end of my quarantine and preparing to receive a volume of books for distributing to the many people wishing for a signed copy.
Do you have any advice for anyone hoping to start up their own sneaker brand? It's difficult to give advice because of the time difference between when Jeff and I made our decision to leave the family business and today. We had experience of manufacturing and knowledge of sourcing materials. Now, technology is different and very expensive, but I guess owning a sneaker brand is different from making sneakers.
To be successful, however, you need to be able to offer something different. This may be a brand new material, which was the case for the Aztec with EVA. At the time, EVA was a new material that was not made from rubber, meaning it was very light. Design is also very important as your shoe needs to look attractive.
With that said, influence is probably more important than either of the above, and to have this could cost you a lot of money depending on the type of influence. This can be team or individual sponsorship, advertising, or being part of a new sport or fitness trend similar to the aerobics phenomena that I mentioned before.
Finance in our early days was a factor to being successful. It can buy the technology, pay for the influence, and fund volume production and start-up costs.
A business plan is essential to get finance, because at some time, unless you have very deep pockets, you will need funding. But as with most business plans you must be prepared to change it if it goes off course. The benefit of this is it allows you to question what was wrong with the original plan.
Anything else that you'd like to add? With the launch of Shoemaker during the pandemic, it takes away the opportunity of doing book signings in bookshops. I have signed plates, which will be available to stick in a book bought in a bookshop, but the only way to obtain a personalised signed book that includes an extra gift, a replica 1920s letterhead from J.W. Foster and Sons, is to buy the book here !
