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Back in the ‘80’s, in a time before ‘fitness clubs’ and ‘health spas’, if you wanted to stay in shape you did something called ‘keep fit’, a pastime made famous by the likes of Jane Fonda and later, GMTV’s Mr. Motivator (remember that guy…), and you’d have usually done it in a pair of Reeboks.

In a decade that really moved trainer technology forward, it was Reebok that held a key grasp on the whole fitness market with their simple but practical designs and silhouettes.

To pay tribute to this era, Reebok is returning to it’s bread and butter routes by releasing the Classic Vintage Collection. Comprising of the Freestyle Hi, Ex-O-Fit Hi, Workout Plus and Classic Leather, the latter three of which are featured here, the collection is pretty much as close to the originals as it could be.

Whilst some may not be a massive fan of the yellow staining used by many-a-brand to give the ‘vintage treatment’, you have to say hats off to the guys at Reebok behind this project, they’ve got it down to a T. From the super soft leather uppers and exposed foam on the tongues, to the box window branding on the side panels and grey towelling lining on the inner. They’ve even got the text on the box label spot on and, fresh out of the box, these things even smell like they should do!

It all started off in ’82 with the release of the Freestyle Hi, the first women’s specific aerobics shoe, and was follow a year later by the Ex-O-Fit Hi, which was essentially a men’s version.

1983 also saw the launch of the Classic Leather, one of Reebok’s most iconic shoes of all time! Now say what you want about the Classic, but you can’t deny this silhouette introduced a lot of us the world of sneakers.

A favourite of ours, however, has to be the Workout Plus which, when released in ‘87, was at the forefront of fitness and training technology because of it’s H-Strap and exposed EVA sole unit system, designs that helped evolve the fitness formula…

The Reebok Classic Vintage Collection is available from our Manchester, Liverpool, Carnaby Street, and Brighton stores and online now.

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