Reebok Is Moving to Boston

Photo by Scott Schiller on Flickr/Creative Commons

Following on the heels of two other major shoe manufacturers, the athletics company Reebok is moving to Boston.

The company, currently based in Canton, is taking roughly 700 employees to the city, the Globe reports. About 300 people will be relocated or let go.

Where, exactly, Reebok plans to move in Boston is still to-be-determined, but its president, Matt O’Toole, tells the Globe the plan is to move into an office building, rather than constructing one themselves.

City Hall does not appear to have been luring the company with tax breaks, like it did with General Electric. John Barros, Boston’s economic development head, tells the Globe a tax incentive package hasn’t been discussed.

Wherever Reebok ends up, the new digs will certainly have a different feel than the picturesque, highway adjacent campus it’s leaving behind a half-hour south of the city. The 460,000-squarefoot Canton location sits on 60 acres, is steps from golf courses and the Blue Hills Reservation, and has its own indoor/outdoor track, fitness center, and baseball diamond. It will soon be up for sale.

The move to Boston comes not long after Converse moved its headquarters from North Andover to the North End Waterfront, at the same time launching a local marketing campaign that includes a music studio, free concerts, and a showpiece of a retail store in Back Bay. And New Balance traded in its old Brighton headquarters for a big, flashy one by the highway, while also building an entire new neighborhood that contains practice facilities for the Bruins and Celtics. All those companies, Reebok included, say they want to recruit millennials, both as customers and as employees.

It’s also the result of some belt-tightening at Adidas, which bought Reebok a decade ago. The German company’s new CEO, Kasper Rorsted, told investors today that he’s focused on overhauling Reebok operations, including by closing stores and laying off employees.

“It is now time to get back to the gym and redouble our efforts on Reebok,” he said, according to Fortune.