"MISINFORMATION PROMPTED ME TO TELL MY STORY"

Reebok co-founder Joseph William Foster has recently penned a book, Shoe Maker, that recounts the remarkable journey of the legacy shoe brand. During his first visit to India recently, Foster took time off to talk to BW Businessworld’s Ruhail Amin about Reebok’s journey, the challenges he faced while setting up the shoe brand, and the inspiration that led him to write a book on it. 

What inspired you to write a book about your journey?
I stepped back from Reebok a long time ago. We didn’t have computers or smartphones in those days. Everywhere I went, we used read and write letters, as we didn’t have emails back then. So when I stepped back from Reebok, I had decided that I’ll visit the beautiful island of Ten Reef, as I wanted to lay back and enjoy life. But then of course, all this new technology came in, we got computers, smartphones, Google and Wikipedia, and they were telling me how Reebok was started, but that was little truth to it. There was also a photograph of Joe Foster, Founder of Reebok, floating on the internet, which was not me.

So all that misinformation prompted me to write my story. We had to tell our story otherwise, there would be a lot of stories of Reebok’s inception.

You faced a lot of hardships in the initial stages of Reebok before it became a global brand. What was your mindset, how did you keep yourself optimistic when things were not so good?
When you have a business, you want it to do well, so you see what the opportunities are. Could we ever become a number one brand? Well, you don’t believe it at the time because you’re still taking those first steps. But I think the beautiful thing about Reebok and about the sports footwear business is that it is very visible, and you mix with people, athletes, and personalities. Hence, it’s an exciting business to be in. So, the excitement led us to take those next steps and we got lucky. Of course, we got lucky. You work hard, but you need a bit of luck as well.