'Be More Human'
- Alye
- Oct 1, 2017
- 4 min read
CrossFit is raw and to the point. At Reebok & CrossFit’s heart is a cultural lifestyle of fitness that has never been seen. “Though not a tech company, CrossFit’s success is tied directly to the birth of the web era and the growth of mobile media.” (Maneker, 2015) Fit Gens “—the consumer who’s typically in their 20s whose entertainment is working out—they’re responding to our version of fitness, which is much more challenging but also much more social”. (Markelz, 2017) CrossFit is a fitness regimen that focuses on work capacity with varied functional movements done at high intensity intervals. It blends together gymnastics, weightlifting, running, rowing, and core movements used in life. “By employing a constantly varied approach to training, functional movements and intensity lead to dramatic gains in fitness.” (Crossfit.com, 2017) The overall point of CrossFit is to forge an inclusive and broad fitness regimen that is measurable, observable, and repeatable. The program is design to offer universal scalability for athletes of all levels and allows for the perfect community regardless of experience or ability.
“Once a power player in the athletic footwear market, Reebok fell from the collective consumer consciousness in the 1990s.” (Markelz, 2017) In the beginning of 2006, ADIDAS acquired the Reebok brand and resurfaced for consumers focusing on becoming the leading fitness brand in the world. They’re first focus to accomplish this task was through CrossFit.
CrossFit was a tool Reebok hoped to use to capture multi-generational targets, define modern exercise, and become relevant in the eyes of their consumers. Signing a ten-year contract with CrossFit, Reebok gained exclusive rights to the licensed brand, trademark, and title sponsorship for its Summer Games. Reebok had once been a leader in the athletic footwear market (even ahead of their top competition, Nike). (Markelz, 2017) They fell quickly out of relevance and were looking for a way to compete in the highly competitive and lucrative marketplace. “In 2009, the “clear roadmap” to success set out Reebok’s plans to dominate women’s fitness, challenge men’s sports, and revive heritage styles. By 2010, the success of the “toning category”—featuring footwear that promised to tone wearer’s legs—seemed to have revealed a better way forward.” (Markelz, 2017) Leading up to the courtship with CrossFit, Reebok was searching for an identity that they couldn’t seem to understand or relate to their customers.
At this point, CrossFit and Reebok were at a turning point. “CrossFit, a high-intensity exercise regimen created by Glassman to practice functional movement, had outgrown its former arena, a ranch in Aromas, California (2010). For the first time, the CrossFit Games would be hosted at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles to accommodate the growth of the sport.” (Markelz, 2017) CrossFit had been incorporated since 2000 and was gaining large popularity by the day. “Glassman’s program was first picked up in 1995 by a police force in Santa Cruz, California, and later by visitors to CrossFit.com, where anyone interested could find a new workout posted each day. But with troubling media coverage about the potential dangers of the demanding sport and little infrastructure, word of mouth had yet to build a following as strong as any of its component activities (Olympic lifting, gymnastics and aerobics).” (Markelz, 2017) During this period, Reebok was on its way out of markets like American football and was looking to radically shift their focus back to the fitness industry and away from sports at the same time that CrossFit was searching for a partner. (Markelz, 2017)
Reebok began to realize the impact that women were having in the fitness industry. This demographic had quickly become one of the leading targets for their competitors. Women were no longer focused on activities that had built Reebok’s success during the 1980’s. The modern fitness industry was creating a new arena for Reebok and Crossfit to collaborate. “Meaningful fitness—exercise that lets people discover their potential—and community orientation were two tenets that Reebok identified as central to both modern fitness and CrossFit. “We felt it was a perfect fit based solely on purpose,” Yan Martin, vice president of brand management at Reebok says.” (Markelz, 2017)
In collaborating as brands; Reebok and CrossFit brands both focused their focus on their shared values. Reebok saw CrossFit as their lighthouse towards transitioning away from the traditional sports market and into the modern fitness industry. This pursuit would give Reebok ten years of “exclusive rights to create CrossFit-branded footwear and apparel and an authentic position” (Markelz, 2017) and serve as the beacon to help CrossFit with their rapid global infrastructure. Other brands like Zumba, yoga, Orange Theory, and traditional sports were steep CrossFit competition. Utilizing the tools that Reebok looked to provide, CrossFit hoped to build a sustainable growth network and framework supported by a long-time name within the fitness industry. Reebok, felt they played a large role as community participants even though they were first movers in the marketplace. The company’s unique ability to be their own consumers is a large part of what fed this partnership.
With any great alliance, competition like Nike, took notice. Nike began to sponsor and put out athletic footwear to combat Reebok CrossFit’s growth. “Days prior to the 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games, (during which athletes were required to wear CrossFit-branded Reebok shoes and apparel) Nike released a version of the Metcon 1, designed as an homage to the Air Jordan 1, which Nike calls its “first outlawed shoe.” ‘During the biggest event in the world of high-intensity training, our athletes have been banned from wearing the Metcon 1,’ Nike said in a product description below the words, ‘Don’t ban our shoe. Beat our shoe.’” (Markelz, 2017)
This guerilla marketing made Nike a tough competitor within the fitness industry for Reebok and questions the needs for CrossFit’s sole relationship with the brand. With CrossFit’s help; Reebok can enter this market where there are little competitors. As a brand, they can be heard and own the space. They can diversity their portfolio within the tough fitness arena to create long-lasting sustainable growth.