Reebok
The company is named after the rhebok, a type of African antelope. Reebok has a long history and was founded in 1895 when it was called Mercury Sports. The company was renamed to Reebok in 1960. They manufactured running shoes and sports gear since they were founded and made for example the running shoes used in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Reebok got like Nike big in the 80s with their Freestyle athletic shoe that they released right in time when the aerobics craze started. The Reebok Freestyle became an icon of the 1980s fashion scene and for young people at that time it was mandatory to rock it together with a mullet at some point.
Reebok hit another home run with their release of the Reebok Pump series in the late 80s. Their slogan in the advertising campaign for the original shoes was “Pump Up, Air Out” which was aimed at their competitor Nike and their “Air” cushioning system.
The original Reebok Pumps were high top basketball sneaker but after their big success (even though with a price tag of 175$ they were very expensive) Reebok released pumps shoes for various other areas like football, tennis, and track. After the pump hype slowed down in the middle of the 90s their production was stopped until the Pump was relaunched in November 2004. The new line of Pumps featured the classic basketball shoes, some running shoes and cross-trainers.
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