The Shoe Maker
Hostages, Assassinations And Fog… Nothing Could Stop Me From Distributing Our 5-Star Reeboks.
IT WAS A LONG JOURNEY from founding Reebok in 1958 to becoming the number one global sports brand in 1987, outselling Nike as the most popular athletic shoe in the world. Sadly, during that journey, I lost my brother Jeff at a very critical time. I was in the U.S. when he was taken ill and had been operated on for stomach cancer before I arrived back in the UK. A few days later, on March 6, 1980, he died at the age of 46.
Only nine months earlier Runners World had awarded Reebok five stars for three of our shoes. The monthly magazine was the “bible” of the running craze that had swept across the U.S. and was read by millions. For 11 years, I had been attending the National Sporting Goods of America show in Chicago and after six different distributors had failed, a seventh distributor wanted to try, but only if we managed to get 5 stars. Our new distributor was Paul Fireman.
The problem I now faced was production. Our small factory in the north of England would never cope with the anticipated demand of the U.S. market, especially now that we had 5-star shoes. A friend who worked for the Bata shoe company offered production at their Tilbury factory just outside London and it would have been Jeff’s job to see that the process went smoothly. It was almost a disaster, but in an odd way it gave us time to get production moved to South Korea.
I had been in contact with the UK agent for a company with shoe factories in South Korea and decided to accept an invitation to visit them in Pusan (now called Busan). I thought also it would be a good idea to travel on from South Korea to Boston, where Paul Fireman operated his company, Boston Camping. In answer to my request, my travel agent came up with a novel ticket offered by Pan American World Airways called “Around the World in 80 days or less” which was First Class Standby. Little did I know this trip would forever live in my memory.
The flight, Pan Am 2, circumnavigated the world travelling East, with London being one of its destinations. There was space in First Class as Pan Am 2 took off for Frankfurt, our next destination. Good food and a lounge on the upper deck became part of travelling First Class. Then we arrived at Tehran. The Boeing 747 didn’t go to a gate, but stayed on the apron and we were told to stay in our seats until we were airborne again. I was to learn later that a few days after our visit the American hostages were taken. But Pan Am 2 was flying on and I was to deplane in Hong Kong, since Seoul in South Korea was not one of its destinations. I was to stay overnight in Hong Kong and when I arrived at my hotel, I was given a message from the South Korean agent saying, “President Park has been assassinated and martial law has been declared. We have left South Korea and are now in Taiwan, suggest you meet us in Taiwan.”
A quick change of tickets and the next day I was heading for Taipei. All was quiet in South Korea so the agent and his team returned to Pusan and I followed the day after. It was a bit scary arriving during martial law, but otherwise it was uneventful. It was good to visit the factories and check their quality before flying to Tokyo to pick up Pan Am 2 again, with the next stop in Honolulu to spend a couple of days on Waikiki beach. I was now on my way to meet my new distributor, Paul Fireman, in Boston, via Los Angeles and New York.
To my surprise Boston Camping no longer existed; Paul had split with his partners to concentrate on Reebok. We spent a couple of days organising the future before I left for New York on Pan Am 2 again, heading for London only to find London was fogbound so Pan Am 2 continued on to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt, I had to wait till westbound Pan Am 1 collected me and dropped me in London. Quite a trip.
Having achieved the big breakthrough with Aerobics Reebok we moved into all other sports and promotions, which brought Reebok to Monaco and the Monte-Carlo Pro-Celebrity Tennis Tournament. We had lots of A-List guest celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Joan Collins. I was even invited to visit the Princely Palace to meet H.S.H. Prince Rainier and share a glass of champagne and have a chat.
At the beginning of 1990, it was time for me to step back and enjoy life in Tenerife on the Canary Islands, where I decided to write my book, Shoemaker. It is there that I met my wife, Julie, to start another adventure, this time with a companion.
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