The 1001 Asics sneakers
Brands

06 October 2021

The 1001 Asics sneakers

The 1001 Asics sneakers



Thanks to the internet, streaming platforms like Netflix and social networks like Tiktok, we have more and more contact with distant cultures so different from ours. Surely you have heard of the Korean series Squid Game. It's on the lips of the world right now and it's just one more of the quality products that come to us from the Asian continent. We gave you this example, but we could have started with the one we really want to talk to you about today: Asics.


Asics doesn't come from Korea, but from the neighbouring country Japan. It was not created in 2021, but in 1949 by a man called Kihachiro Onitsuka. We don't know his life in detail, but surely it could also be made into a good film or series. 


Onitsuka grew up in Japan, joined the drill, became an officer and founded a sports footwear company after leaving the military life behind. It all seems to have happened quickly, but when he set up the Onitsuka Co. at the age of 31, Kihachiro aimed to develop his country's self-esteem after the period of war they had been through. He decided to do it through sports, with basketball shoes.



Asics



It was in his small living room in the port city of Kobe that he created the company's first shoes. It took him a year and he chose to launch it under the brand name Onitsuka Tiger, because of the tiger on the arch of his foot. From then on, he kept innovating until he became successful. In 1951, he developed a sole with suction cups that allowed him to conquer half of the Japanese market. He also invested in footwear for other sports like volleyball, wrestling and running. It was precisely with the latter that it stood out.


Associated with athletes who won medals, it didn't take long for Asics to invade all races and marathons. To develop the best product, the brand worked (and still works) with various athletes to create the best model. That's how in 1960 the MagicRunner was created, which prevented the formation of blisters on the feet and had a ventilation system inside the shoe. They were so successful that, by 1966, two thirds of the Boston marathon runners were wearing models of the brand.


It was also around this time that Onitsuka's products caught the interest of Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, two Americans who wanted to be the brand's distributors in America. Maybe you recognise the names, maybe not, but Knight and Bowerman worked with Onitsuka until 1971, when they developed their own sneaker model and created Nike.



Asics



From then on, the brand was on the feet of every athlete, in the Asian, European and American markets alike. With several models of sneakers already created, Asics also started to produce sportswear and accessories. Business was going so well that Onitsuka Tiger merged with the GTO and Jelenk companies and in 1977 officially became the Asics Corporation.


Today, Asics is considered an authority in the world of running. Did you know that when Rosa Mota won gold in the 1988 Olympic marathon in Seoul she was wearing Asics shoes? It's interesting to see how over the years Asics has become associated with success and well-being, referring to the meaning of its name.


The acronym Asics comes from the Latin 'Anima Sana In Corpore Sano', meaning healthy soul in a healthy body. Beyond the name, this premise symbolises the company's ideology that to have a healthy and happy lifestyle it is necessary to promote physical exercise.



Asics



To talk about the Japanese brand is to talk about the stripes that characterise its sneakers. Representing scratches from the claws of a tiger, the Asics design harks back to the original name Onitsuka Tiger. Since 1992, the Asics logo has lost the word Tiger and changed to an abstract 'a' that expresses the idea of unlimited speed and dynamism before the brand name.


Asics believes in the idea that everyone should be a source of their own inspiration, using since 2017 the slogan 'I move me'. Join that movement and make yourself the person you want to be. Asics is here to help you!



 

Asics

 

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