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Established 1949 in Hyōgo-ku, Kobe.

By Kihachiro Onitsuka
ASICS (アシックス Ashikkusu) is a Japanese multinational corporation which produces footwear and sports equipment designed for a wide range of sports, generally in the upper price range. The name is an acronym for the Latin phrase anima sana in corpore sano, which translates as "Healthy soul in a healthy body". In recent years their running shoes have often been ranked among the top performance footwear in the market. ASICS Ltd. began as Onitsuka Co., Ltd on September 1, 1949. Its founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka, began manufacturing basketball shoes in his home town of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Soon after the range of sports activities widened to a variety of Olympic styles used throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s by athletes worldwide. 
Onitsuka Tiger shoes was selling by Nike, Inc., originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports in the US before when Phil Knight, one of the Nike founder visited Japan in 1963 before he graduated from Stanford University, he was impressed by Onitsuka Tiger shoes with their high quality but reasonable prices. He immediately visited the Onitsuka Tiger office and asked to be their sales agent in the USA. When Knight founded Nike, he headhunted engineers from Onitsuka and made early Nike shoes at the Asahi Corporation in Fukuoka, Japan.

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