Reebok’s reception area at its new 220,000-square-foot headquarters at Boston’s Innovation and Design Building. all photos by W. Marc Bernsau
Last year was a whirlwind for Reebok International Ltd., the athletic gear and footwear maker that moved its headquarters — and 750 employees — 18 miles from Boston’s suburbs into the city’s urban core.
“The biggest thing is the emotional change for everybody, changing the way we all think about our workplace,” said John Lynch, Reebok’s head of U.S. marketing. “We all had offices in Canton … you had your own space. No one has an office here. So it’s a major shift in the way we work, where we work, how we get to work.”
Beyond the design (Gensler), broker and project manager JLL also had to move quickly. And Boston-based Gilbane Building Co. often worked three shifts across 21 hours a day to build out the space in time for Reebok’s move-in date last September.
On the ground floor is a 13,430-square-foot retail store that features a shop where customers can have a pair of Reebok sneakers custom-made in under an hour.
Outside the shop there’s a two-story, 30,000-square-foot gym, complete with a boxing ring, a spin studio, a yoga and barre studio, and plenty of machines.
The building’s third floor houses Reebok’s Makerlab, an area with high-tech machinery and sewing machines, spools of fabric and row after row of lasts — a plastic shoe model that’s formed to fit specific dimensions of a person’s foot.
— Catherine Carlock writes for the Boston Business Journal, an affiliated publication.
The retail store on the first floor at 25 Drydock Ave. reebok_04 The spinning room uses mood lighting in the gym. reebok_25 The lasts library. (Lasts are models for shaping or repairing a shoe). reebok_34 Sample maker Lynn Lu in the apparel department. reebok_40 Reebok President Matt O’Toole. A Foster’s running pump designed in 1895, the first shoe sold in 1896 by J. W. Foster’s of Bolton, England, the forerunner to Reebok. reebok_93 Reebok custom shoemaker Lou Alberghini works on shoes for patrons of the retail store. Trainers Kevin O’Connell and Allyson Leard work out in the fitness facility. Membership costs $75 per month for employees, though the fee is cut by $7.50 each time an employee uses the facility. reebok_12 Reebok’s wear test simulator travels approximately 3.88 feet a second. One round (full circle) is 15.33 meters (50.30 feet) in 13.10 seconds. reebok_53 The cafe area at the new Innovation and Design Building headquarters. Reebok’s “Newsroom” where public relations, social media and marketing are handled. reebok_59 An open work area at Reebok. reebok_74 Reebok color designers Michelle Briggs and Jenn Lee working in the color library. reebok_84 The classics business unit at the new headquarters. reebok_87
