Onitsuka Tiger is one of the oldest shoe companies in Japan, tracing its history back to the establishment of Onitsuka Co Ltd in 1949 when former 32-year-old military officer Kihachiro Onitsuka started his company in the hope of improving the pride of postwar youth through athletics.
Video Onitsuka Tiger
History
The first product of Onitsuka Tiger is a basketball shoe that resembles a straw sandal in many ways. The design was discarded by many people and Onitsuka returned to the design stage to adjust his shoe better with the way the basketball player started and stopped on the floor. By adding a cup and a small space in his basketball shoe sole, Onitsuka made more effective shoes in 1952 which soon became popular throughout Japan. In 1955, the company increased its business to 500 sports stores across Japan.
Onitsuka Tiger worked with Tora Terasawa marathon runner in 1953 to develop running shoes that would keep long distance runners from developing abrasions. The legendary Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila began wearing Onitsuka Tiger sneakers in 1957, the first time in his running career he ever wore shoes, was assured by Onitsuka that they would be superior to his barefoot style. The shoe was also worn in 1958 by short-distance runner Oliver Skilton when he won bronze in a Continental European game.
In the late 1950s, University of Oregon Philip Knight long distance runners were trained by Bill Bowerman, one of the top coaches in the US. Bowerman is also known for experimenting with the design of running shoes to make it lighter and more shock-resistant. After attending Oregon, Knight continued his studies at Stanford University, where he wrote his MBA thesis on the marketing of athletic shoes. Upon receiving his title, Knight went to Japan where he contacted Onitsuka Tiger Co. Ltd., and convince companies that their products have a market in the US. In 1963, Knight received his first shipment of Tiger shoes, and then he and Bowerman invested $ 500 each to form Blue Ribbon Sports (later known as Nike, Inc.).
In 1964, Onitsuka listed his company on the Kobe Stock Exchange and then on the Osaka and Tokyo exchanges. The ASICS line was first introduced in 1966 during the pre-Olympic trials for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. LIMBER is the first model to display ASICS lines on the top side. These lines are famous design icons on other Onitsuka tiger shoes, LIMBER leather, now called MEXICO 66.
In 1968, Blue Ribbon Sports began importing LIMBER UP to the American market. In 1968 their running shoes were the TG-4 "Marathon" which was all top nylon and flat rubber sole. They sell about $ 6.00. Their training shoes have white upper leather soles, and thick soles, and are named "Cortez." They also have sports shoes called "Bangkok" and racing nails. Blue Ribbon Sports has their first store on the East Coast in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, which is very close to the Boston Marathon route. Jeff Johnson is a manager, and he will attend many AAU meetings, as well as a high school cross-country race, where he is usually seen selling Onitsuka brand shoes from the trunk of his Austin Healy 3000 red sports car.
In the 1970s, Onitsuka Tiger introduced FABER, standing for the FASTBREak step in basketball. The Japanese team wore FABRE at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, where they completed 14. In 1972, GTO, Jelenk, and Onitsuka combined their financial and athletic positions to build a regional sales office near Hokkaido for the 1972 Winter Olympics that would lead to merger 1977 to the three companies known as ASICS. In 1976, Finnish runner Lasse Virà © n won 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal wearing Onitsuka Tigers, after wearing Adidas while winning the event at the 1972 Olympics. Currently, the company is still known as ASICS and provides shoes for retailers worldwide. ASICS stands for "Anima Sana at Corpore Sano" or "Healthy Soul in a Healthy Body.", Adapted from the old adage in Juvenal and elsewhere, "Mens is there in corpore sano". The company recently placed a significant emphasis on acronym translation.
Maps Onitsuka Tiger
Shoes Design
Since Onitsuka Tiger was founded in 1949, shoes have been created for football, running, martial arts, basketball, cheerleading, volleyball, cross training, track and field, wrestling, golf, cricket, fencing, and tennis. The most famous Onitsuka Tiger shoe brand is the striped 66 Mexican strip.
ASICS still sells vintage Onitsuka Tiger style shoes, including 66 Mexico, worldwide.
External links
- Onitsuka Tiger's website
Source of the article : Wikipedia