ASICS

ASICS Corporation

Type	Public
Traded as	TYO: 7936
Industry	Sportswear Sports equipment
Founded	1949 (1949)
Founder	Kihachiro Onitsuka
Headquarters	Kobe, Japan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Kiyomi Wada (Chairman) Motoi Oyama (President)
Products	Athletic shoes Apparel Sports equipment
Revenue	¥428.4 billion (as of December, 2015)
Operating income	¥27.4 billion (as of December, 2015)
Net income	¥10.2 billion (as of December, 2015)
Number of employees	7,264 (2015)[1]
Subsidiaries	Haglöfs Runkeeper ASICS Europe B.V. ASICS Sports Corporation ASICS Tiger Corporation ASICS Tiger do Brasil Ltda. ASICS Tiger Oceana Pty.
Website	www.asics.com

ASICS (アシックス, Ashikkusu) (stylized as asics) is a Japanese multinational corporation athletic equipment company 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^[2] which translates as "a healthy soul in a healthy body". In recent years their running shoes have often been ranked among the top performance footwear in the market.^[3][4][5]

History

Inside of the ASICS store on Newbury Street, in the Back Bay section of Boston

ASICS in Vaughan Mills

An ASICS shop on Albion Street, Leeds

ASICS Ltd. began as Onitsuka Co., Ltd on September 1, 1949.^[6] 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 became particularly renowned for the Mexico 66^[7] design, in which the distinctive crossed stripes, now synonymous with the company brand, were featured for the first time. In 1977, Onitsuka Tiger merged with GTO and JELENK to form ASICS Corporation. Despite the name change, a vintage range of ASICS shoes are still produced and sold internationally under the Onitsuka Tiger label.

In its 2006 fiscal year, Asics generated 171 billion yen in net sales and 13 billion yen in net income. Sixty-six percent of the company's income came from the sale of sports shoes, 24% from sportswear, and 10% from sports equipment. Forty-nine percent of the company's sales were in Japan, 28% in North America, and 19% in Europe.

On July 12, 2010, ASICS bought the outdoor brand Haglöfs, for SEK1,000,000,000 ($128.7 million).^[8]

On October 4, 2011, it was announced that ASICS will be the new official kit manufacturer for the Australian Cricket Team, replacing German manufacturer Adidas.^[9]

Name

The name ASICS is an acronym of the Latin phrase anima sana in corpore sano^[2] which translates to "healthy soul in a healthy body" which derives from Juvenal's aphorism mens sana in corpore sano.

Relationship with Nike

Nike, Inc., originally known as BRS, was founded to sell Onitsuka Tiger shoes in the US. When Phil Knight visited Japan in 1963 right 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.^[10] When Knight founded Nike, he headhunted engineers from Onitsuka and made early Nike shoes at the Asahi Corporation in Fukuoka, Japan.

Sponsorship

Gallery

• 
  A pair of ASICS wrestling shoes, model Split Second V
• 
  A pair of ASICS running shoes, model GEL-Kinsei
• 
  A pair of ASICS Gel Kayano 15 shoes with some Betagel in yellow into the heel
• 
  ASICS MetaRun Shoe
• 
  An Asics shoe in boys UK Size 6. This particular style had become a popular choice of school shoe for boys in the United Kingdom at the start of the 2010s

See also

• List of ASICS sponsorships
• List of swimwear brands

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to ASICS.

• ASICS Worldwide