The site is designed to appeal to young Hispanic males who purchase licensed clothing from sports teams such as Chivas, a Mexican soccer team. “Barrio RBK allows Reebok to connect with the ever-expanding Latino youth audience,” says Marc Fireman, Reebok’s global director of advertising and integrated marketing. “We’re offering a new, culturally connected destination for consumers.”

The site has a reggaeton dance game and contest, and the music area includes the top 10 Latino artists, he said. And Reebok has just signed Daddy Yankee, one of the hottest reggaeton stars, to partner in a footwear line.

Reebok will promote the site with banner ads, but hasn’t bought any media yet, Mr. Fireman said.

“We did a lot of research about how to integrate that into the site in a smart way,” Mr. Fireman said. “Spanglish makes a lot of sense from a cultural cue standpoint. It captures more the way Hispanic teens communicate with each other.”

During the first, soft-launch month, barriorbk.com has gotten about 5,000 clicks with no promotion, Mr. Dionne said.

To make the site more interactive, Reebok has partnered with Sony Corp. to launch RBK Radio, a digital media program where users can listen to 200 free Latin and other music tracks.

All of this creates a mix of trendy images and interactive media blended to attract the attention of online Hispanic shoppers and Internet users, which research firm eMarketer says will total about 17 million in 2006.

Reebok built its site to appeal to a younger demographic—almost 40% of the U.S. Hispanic market is under 18—which remains largely untapped. “Not many consumer brand manufacturers have figured out that market, which puts Reebok and BarrioRBK.com ahead of the curve,” says Edward T. Rincón, president of Hispanic market research firm Rincón & Associates.