Reebok president Matt O’Toole isn’t a man who messes around.
Last week this reporter completed a handful of interviews with fighters and other people involved in UFC 193 and there was one common factor in all of the discussions: flies.
The pesky insects certainly weren’t in plague proportions in Melbourne, but there always seemed to be one hanging around the eyes and mouth of the interview subject.
Most attempted to continue answering questions while flicking and swatting away the fly, but that’s not how O’Toole does business.
Less than 30 seconds into his chat with news.com.au, O’Toole politely asked for a pause and quickly removed the offending bug so he could concentrate fully on what he was saying.
It was an insight into the personality of the man responsible for one of his company’s bigger recent gambles — a reported $70 million investment in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
It’s part of a broader strategy targeting consumers who take part in what Reebok calls “tough fitness,” athletic endeavors like Crossfit, obstacle course racing and now combat sports.
“We felt there was this emerging group of consumers interested in more challenging forms of fitness,” O’Toole said.
“Our partnership with the UFC fit right in because of the number of people who are training like a mixed martial arts fighter or a boxer to stay fit is crazy now.
“There’s 35 million people in the world doing it and almost half of them started in the past 12 months.”
O’Toole admits getting into bed with an organization that has had its detractors like the UFC involved risk. He said 42 percent of Reebok consumers are female — significantly more than most other big sporting brands who average around 25 percent. “And it’s trending towards 50-50,” he said.
So it was important to consider whether the confronting side of mixed martial arts — which was on full display at UFC 193 when three of the four female headliners were hospitalized after their fights — was going to turn off a key part of the company’s audience.
“We absolutely had to think about it because it’s a sport that has had a certain level of controversy with it,” O’Toole said. “But I think the guys like [UFC bosses] Dana [White] and Lorenzo [Fertitta] they’ve left a lot of that behind by professionalizing the sport.”
Having a crossover star like Ronda Rousey in its stable of athletes has obviously also been a boon, despite her devastating KO at UFC 193.
Reebok began informal talks with the UFC two years ago — well before Rousey was the Hollywood superstar she is today.
But it didn’t take long for O’Toole and his colleagues to realize what they had on their hands. Rousey attended a meeting of Reebok’s top 500 managers from across the world a few months ago and impressed everyone with how personable she is.
“She’d just hang out a table, talk to people, move to the next table. She was just one of the people there. No entourage, no security. Just a really great person,” O’Toole said.
“Obviously it’s been fortuitous Ronda and the women’s side of the UFC has really risen,” he added.
The partnership with a sport made up of fighters who have spent their entire careers basically free to wear whatever branded clothing they wanted has had its teething problems. But O’Toole believes his company’s focus on producing the best possible apparel is a winner.
Reebok has produced an attractive range of workout shorts, compression gear and tracksuits for fighters to wear. Footwear — and perhaps accessories like gloves — could come down the track, but as O’Toole says “our view is we don’t want to do anything unless it makes it better.”
“Because we are a big brand, a deal like this represents a small part of our overall revenue but we believe over a time — that’s why we’re making such a big investment — it will be a substantial part of our business,” he said.
“It’s a really exciting point in time for the sport and Reebok … there is a bit of risk involved, it’s something entirely new, no one has done it before, but when you’re willing to take a little risk there’s a big upside as well. And we’re starting to feel that upside.”