Kobe, Japan 1949
The founder of the famous shoe and clothing brand ASICS had an adventurous life behind him when, in 1949 at the age of 31, he made an important decision. After spending years in the army and working for a company that bought and sold beer on the black market, Onitsuka decided that sports could make an important contribution to building the confidence of Japanese youngsters. He learned how to make shoes and established Onitsuka Co. Ltd, the forerunner of one of the world's top five sports shoe brands.
Reed sandals
Yukio Matsumoto, the head coach of the basketball team at Kobe Middle School, urged Onitsuka to start producing basketball shoes, convinced that the sport was about to become popular in Japan. Onitsuka's first design looked more like a reed sandal than a basketball shoe, and was ridiculed by the coach.
From that moment onwards, Onitsuka went to watch the team's training sessions as often as he could. He looked closely at the way the players' feet moved, and realised that the key to success lay in stopping and starting quickly.
Suction pads
During a vacation in the summer of 1951, Onitsuka saw a sign depicting gherkins and octopus tentacles, and realised that the octopus's suckers could be the solution to his problem. He used the idea on the soles of the basketball shoes he was working on at the time, and took them along to the team. One player tried them out, and the soles were so effective that he fell over when he stopped suddenly. Onitsuka adapted the sucker design to create basketball shoes which allowed players to stop and start without slipping over.
The support of coaches and players was crucial to Onitsuka's success. When he took samples of his shoes to sports shops, the owners were not interested because they bought their stock from wholesalers, so the young entrepreneur went to visit secondary school basketball coaches instead. They were enthusiastic, and went with him to the shops, telling the owners that they wanted their pupils to wear Onitskuka's shoes in future. After this, he could scarcely keep pace with the demand.
Blisters
In 1953, Onitsuka became interested in running shoes.
Together with top marathon runner Tooru Terasawa, he decided to develop a way of preventing blisters in long-distance runners. Taking his inspiration from motorcycle air cooling systems, he used a loosely woven fabric for the upper and pierced holes in the front and sides, allowing the feet to breathe. Onitsuka also developed a two-layer shock-absorbent sole. Terasawa tried out the shoes, and for the first time ran 26 miles, 385 yards without getting blisters.
Abebe Bikila
It took a certain amount of persuasion to get the legendary Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila running in Tiger shoes: until 1957 he had run barefoot. When Onitsuka watched him win the Olympic marathon in Melbourne in 1956, he began thinking about the future of his business.
