This is a long one…………………………….
A good friend of mine is a second generation shoe maker. His Dad, Joe Foster made shoes for local footballers, boxers, runners and rugby players. When it was time for the old fella t retire his son Joe took over and over time built up the business and expanded all over the country. Even abroad sales of Fosters shoes were growing – then came the shock!
You will have to change your name said the man from the Registration Board – someone with the same name has filed against you. Joe then asked his staff to go home and come up with an acceptable name.
That weekend Joe scoured the Webster’s Dictionary – the American version of our Collins. After hours and hours he came up with the definition of an African Gazelle that was fleet of foot, beautiful and graceful in flight and bounding in energy. He thought, that’s fits exactly the description of my running shoes and with that he renamed his company Reebok.
Choosing this name was no accident. He knew by instinct he could brand his company around the name of the gazelle.
Many years later Joe would sell the company to an American. The running craze had not yet taken off, but a year along the line it did and overnight the word Reebok became synonymous with global success with Joe having sold for a relatively low figure.
When I first asked him for the story he said it was all down to luck – not location – but luck, luck, luck and luck. One year later his company would have been worth many, many times the price. Not good luck – just bad luck! But no one, other than Joe Foster, can take the credit for founding one of the biggest names in the world – What a legacy.