Reebok

The story of Kevin Plank and his company, Under Armour Performance Apparel, has so far been a feel-good tale: The former University of Maryland fullback comes up with a new kind of athletic clothing that sweeps the nation and lands him contracts with everyone from the National Hockey League to the United States Ski Team and makes his product a must-have among the Little League set. But now comes the part in the story where the battle really begins....

Reebok spokesman Dan Sarro responded to the FTC settlement: "We stand behind our EasyTone technology - the first shoe in the toning category that was inspired by balance-ball training. Settling does not mean we agree with the FTC's allegations; we do not.  We have received overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback from thousands of EasyTone customers, and we remain committed to the further development of our EasyTone line of products. Our customers are our number one priority, and we will continue to deliver products that they trust and love.' Reebok agreed to pay $25 million to settle a government complaint that the shoe manufacturer made unsubstantiated claims that EasyTone and RunTone shoes would strengthen and tone legs and butts.

Reebok spokesman Dan Sarro responded to the FTC settlement: "We stand behind our EasyTone technology - the first shoe in the toning category that was inspired by balance-ball training. Settling does not mean we agree with the FTC's allegations; we do not.  We have received overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback from thousands of EasyTone customers, and we remain committed to the further development of our EasyTone line of products. Our customers are our number one priority, and we will continue to deliver products that they trust and love.' Reebok agreed to pay $25 million to settle a government complaint that the shoe manufacturer made unsubstantiated claims that EasyTone and RunTone shoes would strengthen and tone legs and butts.

He wears Reebok athletic shoes, eats at Pizza Hut and drives a Chevy from JBA Chevrolet. As his prospects as a commercial pitchman take off along with his career on the football field, Joe Flacco can increasingly be heard in the media urging consumers to follow his lead. For now, endorsement deals by the Ravens quarterback are mostly regional, such as the agreement to push Pizza Hut of Maryland, where workers serve "Joe Flacco's favorite pizza," and advertisements for Glen Burnie-based JBA that show "2 Good Joes," the other being the local dealership's longtime owner.

LOS ANGELES -- No. 1 draft pick-to-be Shaquille O'Neal, whose age is still less than his shoe size, signed a multiyear sneaker, sunglass and apparel contract with Reebok yesterday, estimated at $3 million a year.Reebok will make O'Neal, the 7-foot center from Louisiana State, the cornerstone of its basketball division, much in the same way Nike developed its relationship with Michael Jordan.Reebok, according to sources, will pay O'Neal a guaranteed $3 million for his rookie season and will introduce a new sneaker for him, called InstaPump.

Sharp-eyed viewers may have spotted two familiar faces leading the basketball tryout in a new Reebok television ad: Dunbar High School's Pete Pompey and Paul Holmes.The nationally recognized coach and his assistant play, not surprisingly, a coach and his assistant in the 30-second athletic shoe commercial, which debuted Friday and is being used during the Olympic broadcasts."I'm not going to give up my day job," joked Pompey, who led Baltimore's Dunbar Poets to a 29-0 season and top national rankings last year.

NEW YORK -- Never mind the running, jumping and swimming scheduled for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. All eyes are now on the furious scrambling, ambushing and maneuvering by the Olympic advertisers.Most notable is an event that could be called the mad --. Reebok International Ltd. is hurriedly revamping its $30 million Olympic campaign to recover from the failure of the decathlete Dan O'Brien to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team when he missed three attempts at the pole vault at Saturday's trials in New Orleans.

Forget Dan's missed pole vault, the Dream Team jacket flap and Nike's copyright problems. When they get around to handing out the gold medals for marketing in Barcelona the winners will be . . . surprise! Nike and Reebok.Despite what might seem to have been a spate of bad publicity, the two athletic shoe companies enjoyed unprecedented public attention during the Games -- lifting them far above other sponsors with more expensive ad campaigns. And in the marketing business, attention is the name of the game.

Andre Raines has the look of a 10-year-old boy who's got virtually all the things a 10-year-old boy could want, namely a Nintendo Game Boy and a comic book.And, with the friendship of Frank Thomas, the Chicago White Sox's slugging first baseman, young Andre's wish list is complete, for in Thomas, he has the perfect Game Boy playmate and role model.All of this would be a bit off-putting to Andre's father, Tim, a White Sox outfielder and Thomas' teammate, if he didn't have nerves of steel.Still, it is Frank Thomas' face and not Tim Raines' on the cover of the comic book that Andre keeps in his father's locker.

When Michelle Knox's mother complained of aching feet recently, the solution seemed simple enough: a nice, solid pair of Reebok Classics, with blue, fluffy-looking interiors. Knox is a shoe saleswoman; she thought she knew the styles, what passed muster on the street. Then her 17-year-old daughter got a look at them. "Freaky Rees!" she screamed. "What are you doing buying Grandma freaky Rees?" "And I said, `Freaky Rees?'" recalled Knox, who works at Shoe City on Greenmount Avenue. "`What are you talking about?

SURRY, Va. -- If you're looking for an Atlanta Falcons jersey with Michael Vick's nickname, "Ookie," on the back, eBay's got you covered. Or maybe a Michael Vick action figure with a plastic dog biting Vick's leg is more up your alley. Or a bumper sticker that says, "My dog beat Mike's dog!" Not a problem. Those are being sold on the site, too. His trial hasn't begun, but that hasn't stopped the development of a cottage industry commemorating the tribulations of the quarterback. Vick, 27, faces felony conspiracy charges relating to dogfighting.

When Michelle Knox's mother complained of aching feet recently, the solution seemed simple enough: a nice, solid pair of Reebok Classics, with blue, fluffy-looking interiors. Knox is a shoe saleswoman; she thought she knew the styles, what passed muster on the street. Then her 17-year-old daughter got a look at them. "Freaky Rees!" she screamed. "What are you doing buying Grandma freaky Rees?" "And I said, `Freaky Rees?'" recalled Knox, who works at Shoe City on Greenmount Avenue. "`What are you talking about?

THERE MUST be a reason why, when we're called upon to think of the most iconic of football coaches, the mind immediately conjures up two men: Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi. They are a mini-gridiron sort of Mount Rushmore, in timeless black and white. That, friends, is the power of the suit jacket, the top coat, the Florsheims and, of course, the fedora. One has to also imagine that the authority projected by these two Hall of Fame coaches would have never come to pass had they worn the same outerwear as, say, Bill Belichick.

Rick Preston estimates he has spent more than $4,000 on Ravens gear since 1996, but there he was yesterday morning, pawing through the racks of jerseys, jackets and T-shirts at Modell's Sporting Goods in the Arundel Mills mall. "I don't have division championship stuff," said Preston, 47, who lives in New Market in Frederick County and also said he wears only Ravens apparel from the time training camp opens until the season ends. Preston, a Verizon technician who was wearing a black Ravens cap and a black Ravens fleece over a black Ravens shirt, could be excused for not yet having the latest look.

Under Armour Performance Apparel has grown by leaps and bounds, but the athletes-turned-businessmen who run the Baltimore company think now is the time to really show what they're made of. The nation's economy is suddenly booming - it just enjoyed the fastest three-month growth in almost 20 years, in part because of strong consumer spending - and that is good news for any operation that does better when weekend warriors have cash in their pockets....

Dunkadelic. Until several months ago it was a word in hardly anybody's vocabulary, not even a slang word used by kids on the street. Then sportswear giant Reebok International Ltd. created a shoe with the Dunkadelic name, promoting it with powerhouse NBA players. A name that didn't exist before suddenly becoming popular. Sports commentators even used it to describe star hoopsters. But Baltimore entrepreneur Derrick E. Vaughan said he thought of the name before Reebok, and he's got a 1997 trademark to prove it. He's filed a $200 million lawsuit against the sneaker company in U.S. District Court in Baltimore for using the Dunkadelic name and reaping huge profits while his company suffered.

NEW ORLEANS -- You've seen their baby pictures, sweethearts and mothers. You've seen them face off like gunslingers in an Italian western, pump iron in high-tech gyms, and match drives with golf's most notorious frequent flier, John Daly.Now, you actually can watch them compete.Dan and Dave: The ad campaign comes to life.When the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials resume today, Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson will play starring roles in the %o decathlon, the two-day, 10-skill test that determines the unofficial title of world's greatest athlete.

As much of America is discovering, when a company has "workplace issues" to resolve, the man to resolve them is Terry Tate: Office Linebacker. Got a loutish employee who drains the last of the coffee without making a fresh pot? Terry Tate, 6-foot-7, 320 pounds and built like a walk-in freezer, will level the fool with a crunching blindside tackle and deliver a scathing, in-your-face lecture on coffee-pot etiquette. Guess who'll be reaching for the Folgers next time the pot gets low? Or say your workers are stretching their break times or making personal phone calls or playing computer games when they should be studying spreadsheets.

NEW YORK - LeBron James, the high school basketball phenom who is expected to be selected No. 1 by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA draft on June 26, is already rich beyond his dreams. The 18-year-old from Akron, Ohio, signed a record-setting endorsement deal with Nike that will dwarf his pro salary for the next three years. After a month of wooing by the three major sneaker companies - Nike, Reebok and Adidas - James and his family agreed to a reported seven-year, $90 million-plus contract that appears to be the largest ever for an amateur and the most lucrative initial endorsement pact for any athlete.

RAVENS LINEBACKER Ray Lewis can't forget the ultimate snubs. After turning in one of the best seasons ever by a defensive player, including a sensational Super Bowl performance in early 2001, the national acclaim went to his teammates. Quarterback Trent Dilfer went to Disney, and Jonathan Ogden, Michael McCrary, Rod Woodson, Shannon Sharpe and even Qadry Ismail went on the Wheaties box. Anyone but Ray Lewis. But when the NFL draft begins tomorrow, Ray Lewis is going to be all over the TV screens in commercials for Reebok and EA Sports.