Dive Brief:
- With an eye on reclaiming its position in the basketball market, Reebok on Thursday launched its first performance basketball shoe in more than a decade, according to a company press release.
- The Engine A will be available globally on Feb. 13 on Reebok’s website and is priced at $120. The basketball shoe initially comes in a silver colorway and the retailer intends to drop more colors over the course of the year.
- The sports retailer plans to introduce the shoe with a global marketing campaign featuring Reebok’s basketball roster, which includes WNBA players Angel Reese and Lexie Brown, NBA player Matas Buzelis and others. Reebok said it would be adding to its basketball roster in the coming weeks.
Dive Insight:
Three and a half years after Adidas announced it would sell Reebok to Authentic Brands Group — and about three years since the deal closed — Reebok is making one of its biggest steps yet to reassert itself in the basketball space.
Late last year, Reebok signed a multiyear partnership with the WNBA, making it an authorized footwear supplier for the league, and in August released its first apparel collection with Reese. In 2023, the brand named Shaquille O’Neal president of its basketball business, putting him in charge of overall strategy in the space and partnerships with basketball athletes and organizations. Even prior to that, Reebok’s leadership had expressed a desire to reclaim its place in the sport, which suffered for years when former owner Adidas pivoted the brand to fitness and away from team sports.
And now, the brand is unveiling its first performance basketball shoe since the early 2010s.
“The launch of the Reebok Engine A is a monumental moment for the brand as we reclaim our stance on the court and within basketball culture,” Reebok CEO Todd Krinsky, who took over the top spot in 2022, said in a statement. “The Engine A embodies all that Reebok stands for: top performance innovation, fearless risk-taking design and a continued commitment to deliver the best product possible to the athletes who are changing the game.”
The basketball shoe features a patented Energy Return System and a modern design that takes notes from the brand’s ’90s-era Mobius line. It also has a lightweight, breathable, exoskeleton upper and a rubber outsole with a herringbone traction pattern designed for basketball-specific motion.
Reebok, while still a part of the Authentic Brands Group portfolio, recently saw the ownership around its operations change hands. Following December layoffs under Sparc, which used to run the retailer’s U.S. operations and has since formed a joint venture with J.C. Penney dubbed Catalyst Brands, Galaxy Universal bought the brand’s U.S. operations and Reebok Design Group. The new owners intend to open more full-price and experiential stores under the Reebok brand.
