All over the world, professional athletes as well as amateurs love Asics sneakers. Although they love to run and play in them, very few people know the history of Asics. The truth is that Asics is a long-standing company that has a very interesting place in the history of asics trainers. Although they have not always been known by the same name, Asics have been one of the leading brands of athletic shoes for over sixty years.

When Asics were first established, the company name was Onitsuka Co. Ltd. They officially began business on September 1, 1949 in Kobe Japan under the director of their founder Kihachiro Onitsuka. The goal of the company was to help motivate and rehabilitate the youth of Japan as they faced the aftermath of the Second World War.

When Onitsuka first began, Onitsuka had no experience with making shoes but he did have an amazing determination to reach his goals. Before long, Onitsuka Co. Ltd. became the creator of the first Japanese designed basketball shoe. According to legend, the design for the sneaker was inspired by octopus suction cups in a salad that Onitsuka was eating.

In 1977, Onitsuka Co. Ltd. adopted the name it goes by today, Asics. The name Asics is an acronym for the phrase “there anima in corpora sano.” This is a Latin phrase which means, “sound mind in a sound body.” This is exactly the goal that Kihachiro Onitsuka had in mind when he first began making running trainers in 1949.

Today, Asics shoes remain some of the most popular among runners and other athletes. They have created a number of comfortable and performance enhancing sneakers not only for basketball but also for a wide array of other sports. When Kihachiro Onitsuka set out to inspire young people across Japan with the power of sports, he likely had no idea that his products would go on to inspire athletes all over the world.