SOUND MIND, SOUND BODY
“Anima Sana In Corpore Sano” (in Latin) or “a sound mind in a sound body” is the derivation of the name Asics. Founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka, built this company to promote healthy and fulfilling lifestyles throughout the world and the positive and uplifting power of sport. In the current climate of today’s world, where everyone could use a little motivation, the Asics philosophy is perhaps stronger than ever.
It’s been a long trek for the company since their humble beginnings in 1949. Asics began as a 4-person company making sneakers for school children. Despite being one of the world’s most renowned running shoes today, Asics’ claim to fame was for their reinvention of the basketball shoe. The basketball shoe of the early 1950’s would not be sufficient for Lebron James or Michael Jordan, to say the least, because they lacked the grip needed to play the sport. So, Asics created a shoe called the ‘Onitsuka Tiger’ that would revolutionize the sports world forever. As the story goes, Mr. Onitsuka got the idea of a suction-like grip on the bottom of the shoe while eating octopus for dinner. Inspiration truly can come from anywhere.
THROUGH THE YEARS
In 1953, Asics introduced its first marathon shoe, the ‘Marathon Tabi’ equipped with features such as rubber soles that were required for marathon running. Through the years following, the shoe has gone through a number of modifications to adapt to the needs and evolution of marathon running.
Thanks to the jogging and aerobics exercise craze of the 70’s Asics was able to establish itself as a performance running brand in the North America market. With this jog and running boom Asics further advanced into the world of running, applied biomechanics to its product development and released the first shoe to incorporate cutting-edge features like the EVA midsole which made them the lightest models on the market at the time.
2020
Since the introduction of the first Asics running shoe in 1977, the company has continued to prosper in the sports footwear industry and has now become a runner’s staple across the world. In 1999, Asics released the GEL-Nimbus, a shoe aimed at neutral runners to supinators, expanding the product lineup of performance running shoes. This became one of the company’s best sellers to date.
With their vision to “Create Quality Lifestyle through Intelligent Sport Technology” Asics continued to innovate and create a future of footwear at the Asics Research Institute of Sports Sciences; even more knowledge is transcended at the Asics Sports Museum located in Japan. It offers a fully immersive experience that takes you through time with the presentation of superior athletic performance, sporting goods, and footwear through the years.
Today, Asics provides much more than basketball and marathon shoes and has expanded into multiple sports like baseball, volleyball, fencing and running. But one thing remains, these shoes are built for people and have truly withstood the tests of time.
