The founder of Reebok, now hitting 90 years old, exuded the kind of quiet charisma that only a few can carry. Not with bravado, but with the weight of a life truly lived. As the final keynote of the day at Elite Business Live, Joseph Foster shared a business story that took us on a journey, one filled with resilience, reinvention, and remarkable insight into what it really takes to build a global brand.
The humble beginnings in Bolton
Born in 1935 in Bolton, which Foster affectionately calls “the centre of the world”, Joe’s story starts in a family of shoemakers. His grandfather, J.W. Foster, had pioneered the spiked running shoe in the late 1800s, equipping world-record-breaking athletes long before influencer marketing had a name. It was a rich legacy, but by the time Joe and his brother Jeff returned from National Service in the 1950s, the family business was crumbling under complacency.
“We came back to a failing company,” Joe recalled. “Adidas had entered the British market, and our business was losing ground fast. When I suggested we invest in marketing, my father just wouldn’t hear it.”
The birth of Reebok
Faced with resistance and stagnation, Joe and Jeff took the bold step of starting anew. In 1958, they launched their own company, initially called Mercury Sports Footwear. But when they tried to trademark the name, they hit a wall. The solution came from a dictionary Joe had won as a child during WWII (for a race he won wearing his grandfather’s shoes, no less). Flicking through the pages under “R,” he landed on Reebok, a small South African gazelle. “Perfect,” he thought. And so it began!
Persistence and serendipity
One of the most powerful parts of Joe’s keynote was his telling of how Reebok broke into the U.S. market. A feat many British brands still find daunting.
“I didn’t get any orders the first year. Or the second. In fact, it took eleven years,” Joe admitted. “But I kept going back. Every year.”
What changed? A mix of timing, trend, and tenacity. In the late ’70s, America’s running boom exploded. When Reebok’s shoes earned not one, but three five-star ratings in Runner’s World magazine, U.S. distributor Paul Fireman signed on. That opened the floodgates.
But the real rocket fuel? Aerobics.
The Jane Fonda effect
It was a chance conversation in Los Angeles that led Reebok to pivot into women’s fitness. A fireman’s colleague noticed his wife raving about a new workout trend: aerobics. Seeing the potential, Reebok created a shoe just for women. When Jane Fonda started wearing them in her workout videos, demand exploded.
“In four years, we went from a $9 million company to $900 million,” Joe said, still in awe. “And the funny thing? Nike and Adidas didn’t believe women’s fitness would last. They missed it completely.”
Stepping back without stepping away
By the time Reebok hit $4 billion, Joe’s role had shifted. “I’d be flying business class, staying in five-star hotels, eating in the best restaurants, but the excitement was gone. The fun was in building the business, not maintaining it.”
He stepped back, not to retire, but to reflect. Over time, he noticed inaccuracies about Reebok’s history online, including one site that pictured the wrong “Joe Foster” as the founder. That prompted him to write Shoemaker, his first book, to set the record straight.
On legacy, loss and resilience
One of the keynote’s most poignant moments came when Joe spoke about the loss of his brother and co-founder, Jeff. “He ran the factory. I did everything else. When he died, we lost that balance. The quality slipped, and it nearly cost us everything.”
Through that deeply personal story, Joe offered something most keynotes never quite achieve: unvarnished honesty about the emotional costs of business. He also touched on the breakdown of his first marriage and the toll that constant travel took on family life. “To build something great, you have to give it everything,” he said. “That’s not always easy.”
What really matters
When asked about his greatest business qualities, Joe simply said: “Fun, fun, and fun.”
It may sound light-hearted, but it cuts to the heart of his philosophy. Enjoy what you do. Stay curious. Don’t fear failure. Keep pushing forward and have a laugh along the way.
Reebok’s legacy lives on, of course, in every pair of Classic trainers, every Pump, and every shout-out in a hip-hop lyric. But more than that, it lives in the mindset Joe shared with us: that success is rarely swift, but always possible if you stay long enough to catch the wave and bring something new to the table when you do.
