• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, November 8, 2017

Reebok is looking to step up its style, announcing a partnership with designer Victoria Beckham. 

The Boston-based Reebok has been glamming up its lineup recently, signing model Gigi Hadid, as well as performers Ariana Grande and Teyana Taylor. It says the addition of Beckham will lead to “a bold new Reebok x Victoria Beckham collection” that it expects to debut late next year, as part of its Reebok Innovation Collective. (Past partnerships include design houses Cottweiler and Vetements, as well as working with the David Clark Company in a bid to build a high-performance space boot.) 

While Beckham burst onto the scene in the mid-1990s as part of the Spice Girls, she’s best known now for her clothing lines, which include the fancy flagship brand and the more affordable Victoria Victoria Beckham. But the perpetually poker-faced designer has teamed up with brands like Estee Lauder, and also designed a capsule collection for Target. (That line, released this spring, reportedly broke sales records for the retailer’s fashion partnerships.)

“As a brand, we look to partner with not just influential women, but women who want to truly change the world,” says Corinna Werkle, Reebok’s senior vice president of Women’s Initiatives, in the announcement.

Reebok is owned by Adidas, and David Beckham, the designer’s stylish other half, has a 20-year relationship with that brand, including the new capsule collection that updates his beloved Predator, due out later this month. And Adidas, compared to rivals who partner primarily with big-name athletes, has had major hits teaming up with celebrities that bolster its “Unleash Your Creativity” positioning, including the red-hot Adidas + Kanye West.

Adidas is scheduled to release its third-quarter earnings this week. In the most recent results available, sales in the Adidas brand climbed 21% at a time when rival Nike’s growth is slowing and Under Armour reported its first sales declines since 2005. Reebok sales gained 5%, led by double-digit sales gains in Classics, which were partly offset by its efforts to clean up distribution in the U.S. marketplace.