Dive Brief:
- About six months after Authentic Brands Group finalized its acquisition of Reebok, the company has named a new CEO for the brand. Todd Krinsky, a 30-year veteran of Reebok, is taking over the top spot from current president and CEO Matt O’Toole.
- O’Toole will transition to a role as executive vice chairman of parent company Authentic Brands in January. Krinsky has been a part of Reebok’s leadership team for more than a decade, according to a company press release, and was most recently the senior vice president of the Reebok Design Group, which oversees product design, development and innovation.
- O’Toole has led Reebok for 15 years, and in his new role, he will continue working on the brand’s global expansion, as well as focusing on broader strategy and new acquisitions for Authentic Brands.
Dive Insight:
Reebok may be changing out CEOs, but the appointment doesn’t bring much new to the brand. Krinsky has worked at Reebok since the early ’90s, when Reebok was still competitive with sports giants Adidas and Nike. As CEO, his dictate seems to be to stay the course laid by O’Toole and its new owner.
“I am confident that under his leadership, the Unleashed strategy is poised for continued success and will drive Reebok’s global growth,” O’Toole said in a statement about Krinsky.
According to Authentic Brands, the post-Adidas strategy is already seeing meaningful results. That includes a 40% U.S. market share gain and “unprecedented global growth,” the company said in its release. The new strategy emphasizes Reebok’s most well-known styles and focuses on the brand’s athletic roots. Krinsky himself has led the growth of the company’s classics business, which has seen “consistent growth worldwide for over a decade,” the company said.
In addition to Krinsky’s appointment as CEO, Sparc Group — which runs Reebok’s U.S. operations — announced two other senior leadership promotions, naming Erika Swan as senior vice president of global operations and sourcing at Reebok Design Group and John Moore as senior vice president of the U.S. commercial market.
“Preserving Reebok’s core values was an important focus as we enhanced the brand’s Senior Leadership Team,” Marc Miller, CEO of Sparc Group, said in a statement. “Todd is a product visionary who brings tremendous credibility in the athletic industry, and we are confident that he will usher in the next wave of Reebok’s expansion.”
Reebok struggled to grow under Adidas, as the brands were directly competitive with each other. Reebok was held back from selling in some of the spaces Adidas did well in, which included the sale of retro products, according to analysts. Now that the brand is no longer nested under the sports powerhouse, it has more flexibility in its strategy.
Earlier this year, O’Toole told Retail Dive the company’s priority was growing market share in its current businesses, but he noted that expansion was possible ahead. That could include basketball, in which O’Toole believes the brand has a “rightful position.” The brand used to be a major player in the category, with brand ambassadors in basketball stars Allen Iverson and Shaquille O’Neal.
“Expect a lot of the things that have made Reebok successful in the past,” O’Toole said at the time.
At the start of the year, some of the brand’s efforts were already gaining traction, per the NPD Group. Reebok sales in the U.S. footwear market surged 60% in 2021, and Matt Powell, senior industry adviser for sports with the NPD Group, said in May that the brand was one of the “hottest in the market.”
“The guardrails, shall we call them, that Adidas put up around what Reebok could make and not make are off,” Powell said. “So Reebok can really make anything they want today.”
