Reebok: ‘We Have No Plans to Walk Away’ From the CrossFit Community
Hours after CrossFit and Nobull announced their partnership, Reebok — which was involved with the organization for 10 years — has responded.
“While our official partnership with CrossFit HQ came to an end in 2020, make no mistake, Reebok remains committed to supporting the athletes, affiliate partners and the global CrossFit community. This is a community that we’ve believed in since day one, and we have no plans to walk away from them,” Reebok president Matt O’Toole said in a email statement to FN. “We will also continue our focus on creating the very best products for the sport. Our latest shoe, the Nano X1 — the ‘Official Shoe of Fitness’ — is the greatest shoe ever created for the CrossFit community and we will continue to raise the bar with each and every product we create.”
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O’Toole continued, “We are thankful for the strong bonds forged and historic moments we’ve created with CrossFit HQ over the years. For the past 10 years, we have been uplifted and inspired by the community and know firsthand the power of this collective. We wish Eric [Roza], Dave [Castro] and team nothing but the best.”
Reebok announced in June 2020 that it was ending its partnership with CrossFit after the organization’s former CEO, Greg Glassman, made an insensitive comment on Twitter regarding George Floyd.
This morning, CrossFit announced that Nobull — which was founded by former Reebok execs Marcus Wilson and Michael Schaeffer in 2015 — would become the new title sponsor, as well as a footwear and apparel sponsor, for the CrossFit Games. The partnership will start with the 2021 Nobull CrossFit Games, and it will extend for at least three years. Additionally, CrossFit said Nobull has agreed to fund the largest CrossFit Games prize purse in history.
“Nobull, like CrossFit, stands for hard work, with no excuses or shortcuts. Nobull, like CrossFit, has a philosophy that is simple, elegant and astonishingly effective at its core. When two companies aligned behind the same core principles come together, it doesn’t feel like a deal. It feels like a union,” Roza, CEO and owner of CrossFit, wrote in a statement today.
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