Reebok
“Can Authentic Brands Group rebuild Reebok as a competitive DTC athletic brand by leveraging modern e-commerce infrastructure, including embedded payments and BNPL, against Nike and Adidas?”
Founded1958
HQBoston, Massachusetts, USA
FoundersJeff Foster, Joe Foster
Latest roundAcquired by Authentic Brands Group (ABG), 2021
IndustryE-commerce / Retail
The story
Founded in 1958 in Bolton, England as a footwear brand, Reebok grew into a global sportswear powerhouse under Paul Fireman's leadership before being sold to Adidas in 2005. After 16 years as an Adidas subsidiary, Authentic Brands Group (ABG) acquired Reebok in 2021 and relaunched it as a direct-to-consumer brand with its own e-commerce storefront. Under ABG, Reebok has leaned into embedded finance capabilities — integrating BNPL (Klarna, Zip) at checkout and fraud prevention (Forter) — as it competes in the DTC athletic footwear and apparel market.
Product timeline
1895
J.W. Foster and Sons founded in Bolton, Lancashire, England — predecessor company to Reebok.· pivot
1958
Jeff and Joe Foster established Reebok as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons.· pivot
1985
Reebok went public.· ipo
2005
Adidas acquired Reebok International Ltd. for approximately $3.8B.· acquisition
2021
Authentic Brands Group (ABG) acquired Reebok from Adidas.· acquisition
2022
Reebok relaunched DTC e-commerce under ABG ownership, partnering with Klarna for buy-now-pay-later at checkout.· banking
The stack
Lending
Shop Now Pay Later (Klarna) — 4 interest-free installmentsZip — 4 installments over 6 weeks
Accounting gap: none