Since 1949, Onitsuka Tiger has stood for trendy and self-indulgent sporting goods modeled on ancient Japanese craftsmanship. The company was founded by Kihachiro Onitsuka in Kobe, Japan. Onitsuka wanted to give young people in his homeland a new zest for life in the post-war era through sports and exercise. At that time, basketball was all the rage, so the first Onitsuka Tiger had to be a basketball shoe. For a long time he watched the basketball team of Kobe and developed a comfortable but above all sporty shoe according to the needs of the players. But somehow Onitsuka was not yet completely satisfied with his product, the shoe was not completely mature.
One day, the apparent answer for the perfect technology was right on his plate, so to speak. Onitsuka was sitting at his mother's table eating salad with squid. That's when the crucial thought came to him. He discovered small nubs on the tentacles of the squid that made it easier for them to move along the seabed. Why not put these suction nubs on a sports shoe to give the wearer a better grip? So he developed the Suction Cup Sole, but this prototype wasn't really perfected yet. The straps stuck to the ground and fell down. So they tinkered on and on until, in 1951, they finally came up with a fully developed basketball shoe. Through careful observation of his environment and his insatiable curiosity, a motorcycle gave him the idea of developing an optimal ventilation system. This was found through perforations in the upper of the running shoe MAGICRUNNER to give the athlete's foot pleasant coolness. For the 1960 Rome Olympics, Onitsuka Tiger designed the NIPPON 60 as a delegation shoe worn at official functions. The design of the shoe showed the rising sun. For the 1968 Olympics, he developed shoes with the so-called Tiger Stripes. These ran vertically and horizontally along the side of the shoe and thus gave the upper additional support. The successful model Mexico Lines or Mexico 66 was born and is still one of the successful models of Onitsuka Tiger. In the 60s, the shoes around Onitsuka for the U.S. were distributed by Blue Ribbon Sports, the predecessor company of Nike. On request, they developed especially for the American market the CORTEZ, which was later called CORSAIR. The first clothing collection went into development in 1975 for the Montreal Olympics to outfit the Japanese committee.
It was an emotional moment for Onitsuka when Finnish runner Lasse Virén took off his Onitsuka Tiger shoes and raised them to the sky when he won his second gold medal. In addition to running and basketball shoes, Onitsuka and his team also developed winter sports shoes, including ski boots and snow training shoes. Gymnastics and volleyball shoes also followed. In 1977, Onitsuka Tiger merged with two other companies in the same industry to form one large sporting goods company. The new company was called: ASICS (Anima Sane In Corpore Sano), which was derived from a Latin saying meaning "a healthy soul in a healthy body". The trademark of Asics is the Tiger Stripes and the ∂ in front of the Asics lettering. We are happy to present you the Onitsuka Tiger sneakers in our shoe dealer online store. We have something for both men and women, so store for whatever your shoe heart desires.
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