The Big Interview – Chris Froio

Chris Froio, Reebok’s Vice President of Fitness & Training speaks exclusively to sportindustry.biz about the brand’s backing of the new craze ‘CrossFit’ and its place in the sports world following the first Crossfit International event at the London ExCel. 

For the uninitiated, what is CrossFit? 

CrossFit is a methodology that’s based on constantly varying functional movements at high intensity. The idea was founded by Greg Glassman in Santa Cruz, California, who started practising in the mid 1970’s and has flourished since he opened his first gym in the 1990’s. It’s an amazing combination of a variety of activities whether it be gymnastics movements, pull ups, Plyo Box jumping, Olympic weightlifting, running, or pretty much any type of activity that you could possibly do in a sport or fitness activity. These are then combined and performed at a high intensity to get results. 

We love that it’s a group exercise that builds community and becomes a social aspect in people’s lives and not just a physical activity – that’s where the magic happens and that’s why it is growing so fast.  

You’re in town to attend the first US v Europe Crossfit Invitational Throwdown presented by Reebok at the London ExCel, how did the idea for this come about?

We are the title sponsor of the Reebok CrossFit Games, the worldwide fitness competition that Crossfit started seven years ago and we grew our relationship with CrossFit in order to grow the excitement of not only the competitive side of the sport but also build awareness. We were always looking for new ideas to generate excitement and energy and build PR around our relationship.

The Games culminated in Carson, California, at the home depot centre in July. It was one of the biggest events we have been part of; it’s basically Reebok’s Super Bowl or World Cup. The competitive side of the Crossfit now ends until February so we were eager to find a way for us to build an additional opportunity to showcase these world class athletes, especially in Europe which is the fastest growing region for Crossfit. We took The Ryder Cup mentality, where you could take the best athletes from the US and pit them against the best athletes from continental Europe, and have a Throwdown and make an event out of it. 

It’s been branded ‘The Sport of Fitness’ – was it a conscious decision to try and blend the competitive elements of sport together with fitness? 

‘The Sport of Fitness’ has arrived in 2012, in our TV and all of our print and media work that we have done. The competitive aspect is not the primary reason behind CrossFit; it really is about the community and getting the average person working out. But we do believe that the competitive side of Crossfit through the games and the competitions can create the same amount of passion and energy for Crossfit that anyone might have for traditional global sports such as football or baseball. 

We feel that through the growth of the competitions and the energy and excitement is creates, not only for the athletes but for the people in the stands, it is going to create a whole new view of what fitness can look and feel like.

To answer your question simply, yes, it was a conscious decision, but the end goal wasn’t just to hype this up as a new, growing sport, it’s also to grow awareness so that the average everyday person can be excited about fitness and move more. 

With the eyes of the world focusing on events such as the Olympics in London and the Euro 2012 competition, how important was it for you as a brand to innovate in other areas, such as the fitness?

I do think bringing a competitive aspect to fitness is a new approach and is different to what’s going on with the Olympics. 

We do see this as one avenue, while it is nowhere near the scope of the Olympics obviously, it does allow us to show a new way to think about the brand and to think about fitness and try to get people that are unengaged in either sport or haven’t found fitness to be excited. To really look at fitness through a different lens and see that it can be fun and engaging, as well as competitive, that’s our aim.

Looking ahead to the future, how does Reebok intend to grow the CrossFit brand over the next year or so?

Our goal is to work with CrossFit to grow both brands, we elevate CrossFit, to take our brand recognition and the resources that we have and try to spread CrossFit. 

At the end of 2011, there were somewhere between 3200 and 3400 boxes (boxes being the gyms). Today there are 4400 and we think by the end of this year there could be almost 4800 boxes around the world. In Europe alone it has doubled from 220 to over 440 boxes in Europe, 115 of those here in the UK. Our goal is to help CrossFit grow because we believe in the methodology; we think it’s a great way to bring fitness to the world. 

In the next two to three years we want to help them grow to be between 6000 and 8000 gyms, and at the same time build loyalty and affinity for our brand within that community. They see us as an innovator in the fitness world and it’s a win-win for both brands – that’s a common goal for both brands.