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Yeah, the Union Jack on the logo doesn't represent where the brand currently resides, but as far as we're concerned, the Reebok Workout is a British shoe. We adopted it. Yankees have their Uptowns, but this design looks at home in this country's dour environments, whether they're an inner city locale or a provincial town. Back when Reebok were causing Nike some serious migraines just by breaking out the soft leather for aerobics purposes via the Freestyle and getting Paula Abdul to endorse (back before she was completely crazy), they dropped the original Workout to take their fitness regime truly unisex.

Mid '80s design with an admirable restraint given the excesses of the era that gives it an ageless look, the Freestyle might have been christened the 54.11, and earned a place in hip-hop history, but the Workout had its fair share too. Memphis and Louisiana MCs like Juvenile confused us by referring to their "Reebok Souljas" which seemed to be represented by the Workout Mid Strap and occasionally pub favourite, the Reebok Classic running silhouette. Skaters took to the Workout too, hence those Stevie Williams RBK DGK variations. The early '90s update — upgrading to Workout Plus status — really sent this shoe stratospheric on these shores. While it was already a dual-gender design, that altered toebox and extra resilience afforded it an extra spot of masculinity.

Retaining the immediately recognisable H-strap and those stability-orientated heel and toe wraps implemented to make the Workout gym, track and racketball friendly, back during that fitness boom and fever for the notion of cross training, in pristine white or all black, this affordable creation became ubiquitous round our way. Rather than taking the elitist stance and distancing ourselves from it, we're keen to celebrate what's arguably a pivotal piece of UK attire, whether you like it or not.

This year the Workout Plus has been taken outdoors a few times — fitting, seeing as we don't think it's seen the inside of a gymnasium in a while, but this duo of hardwearing suede and canvas variations don't go too overboard on a hiker feel, but in the case of the brown and greens, seems to homage Timberland's mighty beef and broccoli Field Boot. That means a nice little mix of an NYC street classic and a local hero. These are available soon at the usual spots.

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