Reebok: The First Women’s Athletic Brand

A few weeks ago I had the chance to spend the morning learning about Reebok during their global PR event hosted in New York City. Four hours with the brand helped me realize just how creative and cutting edge the brand has become.

Rather than only hearing about the brand from their executives, they allowed us to each interact with the brand by participating in short active breakout sessions which were focused on the sports for which they are currently designing: dance, yoga, walking, running, training (Cross Fit), and aerobics. through a yoga class with Tara Stiles and my first Crossfit experience! The brand’s heritage is based in women’s fitness since it was the first women’s fitness and apparel line back in the 1980s. They believe, as their ad campaigns have said over the year, that life is not a spectator sport. For this reason, they wanted us to get to know them by interacting with the products and a few of the people who represent the brand on a daily basis. Before the event officially started, a few of the Fitfluential ambassadors (Gina was my buddy for the morning) in attendance walked around together checking out the clothing racks and displays for each sport.  We wanted almost everything we saw! The technical fabrics were all bright colors or fun fabrics and each piece seemed to have an unexpected, fun element whether it was mantras on the Cross Fit crop pants or navy blue and white stripes on the yoga sports bra!

As many of you may know, Reebok was one of the first shoe companies who targeted and designed athletic shoes to meet the needs of women, beginning in the 1980s just in time for the aerobics boom. However, since then the brand has grown up in big ways!

Their Chief Marketing Office opened up the event by outlining the brand’s goals and where they’ve come over the years. Since there are more than 5000 new gyms opening each year and 1 in 4 people participate in fitness globally this is not only the right time to be focused on bringing people together through sport but also to help double the number of people who are active. During the course of the day, through both the breakout sessions and interacting with their brand ambassadors and executives, their goal to create social bonds with people through fitness became clear!

Yoga

During the yoga breakout we had the chance to enjoy a short, efficient 20 minute yoga class with their world yoga ambassador, Tara Stiles. I’ve practiced yoga at her studio a number of times but never before have I done yoga in a black light room!  The sports bra, crop pants, and t-shirt we wore is from their Fall line and was super comfortable! When Tara was describing her vision for the clothing line she said she wanted something that every woman could feel comortable in while practicing yoga and I couldn’t agree more. There is a time for compression and tight tops but when I’m trying to relax, bend and twist I want a long top that won’t expose my stomach, comfortable and breathable material, and soft pants or crops that are a higher rise so they aren’t exposing anything during down dog.

Cross Fit/Lifting

We took a group field trip to the Cross Fit box near Herald Square for this portion. I was nervous since I knew they were going to make us complete a WOD and I was one of the only people in attendance who had never done Cross Fit. But, their ambassadors, Christmas and Annie, were empowering, supportive and strong women who wanted everyone to enjoy their experience. They did a great job putting me and everyone else at ease while also ensuring we learned proper form before attempting each exercise.

After some dynamic warm-ups as a group we split into teams to complete the Team WOD. Our goal was to complete as many as possible during each minute long station then repeating for a total of three times. Since it was a team atmosphere we were told to cheer each other on as we stood in a line completing each exercise.

• Burpee
• Kettle Bell Swings (35-45 lbs)
• Box Jumps (20 inch box)

The class was a definite workout and left my heart pounding and sweat dripping. Crossfit is DEFINITELY an efficient workout! After doing that many box jumps, even though I was intimidated at first, will leave your quads burning. I also loved how closely the coaches worked with each of us to ensure we were using the correct form.

The clothes they gave us for the session included a fun purple tank with black detailing along with compression crop pants in both black and gray. The gray ones have tons of Cross Fit words and mantras on them along with a band to ensure they don’t move around when doing big movements like box jumps, deep squats, or even going for a run along the East River.   

Thank you Reebok for such a great morning! It was a blast to interact with your products, ambassadors and try some new experiences like Cross Fit! Thank you also for creating fun clothing that makes both the elite and “every woman” feel strong when they are working out!

*As part of Fitfluential, I was given the opportunity to attend this event. The Reebok product I received was free. This post is not compensated and all opinions are my own.