Joe Foster. How the Reebok Founder Built a Business Empire. Episode 324 with The Real Brad Lea (TRBL)

In 1943 at the age of 8, Joe won an American Webster's dictionary in an 80 yards sprint race in his hometown of Bolton. This was the dictionary where Joe was to find the word Reebok (the American spelling), in 1960. If he had won an English Dictionary, he would have found the word spelled, Rhebok. Joe and his late brother Jeff were born into the J W Foster & family business, but on their return after 2 years away from home on National Service, they asked questions about the future. The year was 1955 and the brothers saw a business still rooted in the 1930s. Their father and uncle were now operating the business and very much like another sport shoe company (Adidas), spent more time feuding than collaborating. The result was that in 1958 Joe and Jeff left the Foster business to set up their own business. Six miles down the road in the next town, Bury, the brothers founded "Mercury Sports Footwear", which after 18 months they changed its name to 'Reebok'. Joe had been advised to protect their company’s name by registering it. Finding the word Mercury was registered by another company started the search for a new name and one source was Joe's Webster's dictionary. Leafing through for inspiration Joe came across grey rhebok, a small South African antelope, this sounded just right and was free to register. The Reebok business developed with Jeff looking after production, Joe took charge of the sales and marketing side, as well as design which included the classic silhouette, outsole, and the Starcrest. 

In this episode, Brad identifies how Joe Foster very well may have invented “Influencer Marketing” back in 1982 and leveraged it to Billions, building a global brand in Reebok that he eventually exited some 10 years ago. Now spending time in France awaiting a trip back to his home country of the U.K. Joe Foster is still smart as a whip and knows what it takes to help products sell at scale.