Tracing the Reebok Classic Through Music History

Tracing the Reebok Classic Through Music History
Tracing the Reebok Classic Through Music History
until, in 1958, Jeff and Joe Foster
Jnr formed a companion company,
at first called Mercury Sports.
Unable to legally register that
name, the brothers sought out
the aid of their local patent agent,
who informed them that the
easiest names to trademark were
the most unusual. Joe dug out
the 1943 edition of Webster’s
New School and Office Dictionary
that he had won in a running
competition as a boy and found the
word Reebok, meaning ‘antelope’
in Afrikaans – the Reebok brand
was born.
Then, in 1979, an American
businessman by the name of
Paul Fireman bought the North
American distribution rights for
Reebok and had his team set about
designing new shoes that
would appeal to consumers in
an increasingly crowded,
yet booming, marketplace for
performance footwear.
The first shoe to arrive from
Fireman’s team was the Freestyle
in 1982, pitched to appeal to the
thriving women’s aerobics industry.
Featuring super-soft, garmentgrade
leather, the Freestyle was an
instant success, affordably blurring
fashion and performance like
no other shoe before it, and opening
up a whole new category for both
Reebok and the sneaker world.
Buoyed by the Freestyle’s
success, in 1983 the Classic Leather
was launched. At odds with the
performance shoe market’s shift
to nylon and suede uppers and
constructions at the time, the Classic
borrowed the soft garment leather
from the Freestyle to create the style
conscious, unisex running shoe that
we all now know so well. Rumour has
it that the use of garment leather
was, in fact, a mistake and little
more than the result of an incorrect
materials order. Erroneous or not,
Reebok went with it, taking a risk
that continues to pay off to this day.
One very much premeditated
aspect of the Classic’s design
though, was the Union Jack logo
on the shoe’s side, incorporated by
Fireman to give the shoe a strong
identity in the American market.
Pushed aside as Reebok’s main
logo by the now famous vector logo
in 1992, the Union Jack has stood
firm on the Classic throughout its
34-year history – and it’s this small
detail that has helped endear the shoe
to generations of Brits, keen to
eschew American or European brands
for a proud touch of patriotism and
heritage.
As the 1980s rolled on,
the sneaker industry focused
increasingly on flashy gimmicks,
celebrity endorsements and wild
neon colours. Reebok’s downplayed
garment leather range of shoes fell
out of the spotlight, and over the
years ahead it would be the
responsibility of a handful of
subcultures to keep the Classic
alive.From here, the shoe became
synonymous with British football
casuals culture and could be seen on
terraces and pub pavements across
the UK. The tough, no nonsense –
yet supremely stylish – casuals look
and movement helped establish
the Classic’s street level credentials
for generations to come.
But it wasn’t just in the UK
that the shoe was finding popularity
among those from the wrong side
of the tracks. In Harlem hustler
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Tracing the Reebok Classic Through Music History
Tracing the Reebok Classic Through Music History
Azie Faison’s memoirs ‘Game
Over’, the author sings the praises
of the Reebok Classic and tells of
the popularity of the white-onwhites
on 1980s New York’s streets.
Indeed, legend has it that when
infamous Mafia boss John Gotti
surrendered to the police, he did
so in a pair of white Classics.
Back in the UK, the shoe
maintained its street champion
status as the acid house and
hardcore rave movements swept
the country. Without the
extortionate price tag attached
to most trainers of the time,
the Classic was a shoe you
could rave in comfortably
without worrying about what you
trod in, or who trod on them.
When hardcore turned
to jungle and then to UK garage
in the early and mid ‘90s,
the Classic was re-appropriated
once more, with the Moschino
and Versace-clad ravers of the
time pairing their insanely loud
Italian designer garms with the
simplicity and Britishness of the allleather
shoe.
Londoner MC Bushkin, from the
legendary garage collective Heartless
Crew, was one of the key exponents
of this look, rocking thousands of
pounds worth of designer labels with
£50 Reeboks. He remembers the era
well and, to this day, still wears his
Classics with pride.
“In the early ‘90s, fashion
in London was really influenced
by America or Jamaica; big baggy
jeans and bulky boots and trainers,”
he explains. “Things changed
when jungle and garage took over;
the fashion changed. That music was
something we created and could call
our own. It was us, it represented
our own style.
“Baggy jeans were out; it was
all about straight jeans. Classics are
smooth, so they fitted the straight
jean look. They’re not overdone,
not too hype; they’re just smooth and
fitting. White boys had that swagger
from early; straight jeans and the
Classics. The two go hand-in-hand;
they’re a perfect marriage.”
By the Millennium, the jungle
and garage scenes and their
associated looks had long faded
away, but the Classic remained as
popular as ever with the British
working classes – with it regularly
cited as the most commonly found
footprint at UK crime scenes.
However, as retro shoes began
to dominate the marketplace,
the shoe found new fans drawn in
by its throwback appeal and the
simple, go-with-anything design that
befitted its name.
As photographer Ewen Spencer
(famed for his snaps from the heyday
of the ‘90s UK garage scene) reflects,
it’s the authenticity of the era that
Classics have come to represent
that has ensured their continued
popularity in the years since:
“I think they’re still relevant
because there’s an authenticity to
them that doesn’t exist now in the
same way it did in the ‘90s. People are
searching for something with those
connotations; a ‘90s casual, working
class or rude boy culture.
“When you think about
movements like garage and jungle,
it’s difficult to find that sort of
spontaneity and subculture now,
so people go hunting for it in
the past. I guess all styles are
cyclical and get re-appropriated,
and that’s what’s happened with the
Reebok Classic.”
And as the second decade of
the century has progressed, that
re-appropriation has continued
apace, with the Classic’s ‘90s
credentials seized on by a generation
looking to reclaim the style and
attitude of the decade of their
birth. The cult success of London
anti-fashion label Sports Banger,
which famously subverts the Reebok
logo in many of its most iconic
designs, bears testament to the new
found hype behind the Classic brand
and the culture it represents.
As Sports Banger’s chief
protagonist Johnny Banger says of
the shoe that has inspired so much
of what he does:“Reebok Classics
were foretold. If you’re going to call
it a Classic, you better make sure it
is a classic.” We couldn’t have put it
better ourselves.
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