In 1949, Japanese entrepreneur Kihachiro Onitsuka founded Onitsuka Co. Ltd, the company destined to become world-renowned sports brand ASICS. Encouraged by a coach in his home town of Kobe, Onitsuka brought out the first Japanese-made basketball shoes at a time when there were no other specialist sports shoe makers in Japan. His first design looked more like a straw sandal than a basketball shoe, but Onitsuka worked hard to research the sport by observing the players’ movements- a key factor in Onitsuka’s future success.

  A flash of inspiration came in 1951 when he realized that the key to success could lie in the ’sucking discs’ of an octopus tentacle. After Onitsuka had finished his first basketball shoe, the product’s reputation spread so quickly that soon, it is claimed, he took a fifty per cent share of Japan’s sports shoe market.
   Onitsuka went on to purchase the Tiger brand in 1958. When he saw Ethiopian athlete Abebe Bikila win the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome barefoot, Onitsuka turned the situation to his own advantage by persuading the gold medallist to wear his brand for the Mainichi marathon in  Japan. Needless to say, Bikila won.
   A whole host of other running stars have become associated with the brand over the years, including Kenji Kimihara, Derek Crayton, Lasse Viren, Toru Terasawa, Yuko Arimori and Naoko
Takahashi.
  Onitsuka Tiger has appeared in many great movie moments as well as victories on the running track – Bruce Lee is forever associated with the brand , and more recently Uma Thurman went out seeking
revenge in Kill Bill in her Onitsuka Tiger Tai Chis , which has brought the brand to people’s attention once more. There aren’t many brands which can boast of such performance-enhancing designs and cult appeal in equal measure.
   The company expanded into sports apparel when, in 1976, it finalized a deal with sportswear manufacturer GTO and knitwear firm Jelenk. The three companies merged the following year to form ASlCS. It now claims to rank among the top five largest companies in the sports shoe industry.  Never one to rest on his laurels, in 1999 Onitsuka is reported to have said: ‘This first  half century was only the beginning.’