Reebok Goes On Front Foot To Play Cricket

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New Delhi, Oct 9: : In a bid to re-energise the brand’s association with cricket, Reebok International plans to develop cricket as a category within its product portfolio. And the Indian subsidiary, Reebok India Company, will have a big role to play in developing, designing and manufacturing a global line of cricket products that will be exported to other countries.

As part of this initiative, a new hi-tech cricket shoe has been manufactured by Reebok India from a new mould. Exports of the shoe and the entire cricket line are likely to begin by November.

According to Mr Michael Conlan, VP, Footwear, Asia-Pacific, Reebok Intern-ational, who was in the country to set the cricket programme rolling, “For the first time, we will be exporting a high-technology performance product from India. With time we plan to begin developing more such products locally and India could well become a hub for a large number of markets, specially in the region.”

Currently at least 50 per cent of its Greg Norman (golf) line is sourced from India. Among other ranges manufactured locally are the Classic Line, Running shoes and squash shoes.

Reebok India’s cricket line of products include leather items like pads, gloves, guards and cricket bats, besides cricket clothing. The new shoe, in keeping with Reebok’s integrated relationship programme with athletes, has been tested on Indian, Australian and South African cricketers.

Globally, Reebok has invested in various sports like soccer, baseball, track and field events, but it is for the first time that it will be looking closely at cricket. Explaining the cricket strategy, Mr Conlan says, “We will position cricket as a product category for the first time. This is part of efforts within the company to re-energise the brand with new technology and to realign with sports and consumers. The strategy is to position, create and build strong, innovative performance products.”

In India, Reebok will also exploit its brand ambassadors—Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, besides younsters Gautam Gambhir, Ambavati Rayudu and Amit Mishra to strengthen its cricket association.

“For Reebok, the three key Asia Pacific markets are Japan, Korea and India. We need to invest in re-energising the brand in these markets,” says Mr Conlan. As part of these efforts it has launched its latest DMX Reflex technology shoes in the country and is also launching its ‘Wear the Vector, Outperform campaign’ launched globally last month, to reposition the brand logo for its Performance Products category.