Don Hasselbeck Was Against Reebok CrossFit Partnership

The Boston Globe just posted an article about how Reebok has been implementing the Reebok CrossFit partnership into their workplace.

It is an interesting piece and even notes how some, like former NFL New England Patriot, Don Hasselbeck was against the move to partner CrossFit into the Reebok business structure.

Hasselbeck, who is now Reebok’s director of athlete service and strategy, said he sat with his arms crossed when they first meet with CrossFit HQ staff. As the story goes Hasselbeck stated, “I had no interest in CrossFit and wasn’t convinced it was a good idea when we signed the deal. It seemed so intense. I thought you had to be young and in shape.’’ Fortunately that all changed once he put himself through a WOD and found it he enjoyed it.

Hasselbeck is now just one of over 1,000 Reebok staff in 20 offices worldwide who attends weekly CrossFit classes and it seems to be paying off. Last year the staff at Canton Reebok offices lost a collective total of over 4,000 pounds. In fact it has become so successful that it forced Reebok to expand the already large and popular CrossFit box just to satisfy the ever growing demand.

With the success of the Reebok CrossFit program in their workplace other large corporations such as Google have taken notiice and also expressed interest in creating their own CrossFit programs.

The partnership seems to have no end in positive facets. An added bonus noted by the article has seen Reebok be able to push back into the fitness industry much like it did when it lead the aerobics revolution of the 1980s. To this day I still see many of the Reebok branded step boxes used in for aerobics classes littered in the corners of gyms collecting dust. It seems like only yesterday that Reebok really had that market corner and from all appearance they may be have done it again with this new Reebok CrossFit partnership.

All of this is a positive step in the right direction, let’s hope it continues.