In 1895, Joseph William Foster at the age of 14 started work in his bedroom above his father's sweetshop in Bolton, England, and designed some of the earliest spiked running shoes.

[5] Foster opened a small factory called Olympic Works, and gradually became famous among athletes for his "running pumps".

[6][8] In 1979, American businessman Paul Fireman took notice of Reebok at the Chicago NSGA (National Sporting Goods of America) Show.

Fireman had previously been an executive with his family business Boston Camping,[9] and negotiated a deal to license and distribute the Reebok brand in the United States.

[13] One of the company's most iconic technologies,[14] the Reebok Pump, debuted in 1989[15][16] with more than 100 professional athletes wearing the footwear by 1992, including Shaquille O'Neal.

[18] The switch signaled the transition of the company into a performance brand as it began licensing deals with professional athletes in the NBA and NFL.

[19] Reebok also began developing sports clothing and accessories, and introduced a line of children's athletic shoes called Weeboks.

[5] By mid-decade, Reebok's sales were about $1 billion, and it overtook Nike, Inc. as the largest athletic shoe manufacturer in the US before losing the top position in 1988.

[32] After launching retail flagship stores in China, Dhaka, London, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Tokyo, Margolis resigned in October 2004.

[37] Following an intellectual property lawsuit in August 2005, Adidas acquired Reebok as a subsidiary, but maintained operations under their separate brand names.

[41] Following the acquisition, Adidas replaced Reebok as the official uniform supplier for the NBA in 2006[18] with an 11-year deal that included the WNBA, replica jerseys, and warm-up gear.

Harrington joined the company in 1994 and was Reebok's senior vice president of global operations and chief supply chain officer.

[19] Following a successful re-release of many of its sneaker and apparel lines from the early/mid 1990s, in November 2019, Reebok announced that it was updating the 1992 vector logo along with the original "Reebok" script in Motter Tektura typeface and restoring both as the company's core brand identity, citing that consumers still identified with them rather than the red delta logo,[46] although the delta would continue to be used on some fitness lines.

In February 2021, Adidas announced plans to divest Reebok after analyzing options[47] and expected a hit of about €250 million to operating profit from costs to sell or spin-off the business.

The company has released numerous notable styles of footwear including the 1982 introduction of the Reebok Freestyle that was exclusively marketed for women.

[55] In 1984, the shoe accounted for more than half of Reebok's sales, and the company subsequently released similar styles including the Princess, Empress and Dutchess lines.

[57] To compete with Nike Air, Reebok introduced Energy Return System (ERS) in 1987, in which a series of horizontal cylinders in the midsole acted as springs.

The footwear collection was released as a men's basketball shoe and the first adjustable fit controlled with manual air allocation.

[68] In 2017, the UFC announced the launch of a new line under the name Fight Night Collection that includes an upgraded version of the Reebok-branded apparels.

[69] Reebok sponsored kits for top seeded Indian Football clubs, Mohun Bagan AC (2006–2011) and East Bengal FC (2003–2005, 2006–2010).

[71][72] Indian Cricket player Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Bollywood star Bipasha Basu endorsed the Reebok shoes together during 2009.

[73] In May 2012, Reebok India filed a criminal complaint against former managerial employees, Subhinder Singh Prem and Vishnu Bhagat, accusing them of a financial fraud of up to US$233 million.

[74] On the charge of alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations, Reebok India was booked and may face penal action.

[76] One of Reebok's most prominent athletes, Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, was named by Forbes as the world's thirty first highest-paid sportsperson in June 2012.

Several other English clubs, such as Liverpool F.C., had Reebok sponsorship deals up until the purchase by Adidas, but most have since switched to either the parent brand (which has a long history in football) or another company altogether.

[93] Reebok product placement was used for a gag in the Super Mario Bros. live-action film, where the soles of a Bob-omb's feet are printed with the brand logo.

[101] Reebok held the rights to produce the on-ice Edge Uniform System, performance clothing and training footwear of the National Hockey League (NHL) in a 10-year agreement from 2007 to 2017.

Other high-profile entertainment figures that have signed endorsement agreements with Reebok over the years include Ariana Grande, Gal Gadot, Gigi Hadid, Victoria Beckham,[116][117] Cardi B, and Camille Kostek.

[118] The Reebok Foundation operates the "Build Our Kids' Success" (BOKS) program to provide US schoolchildren with physical activities before the school day.