In 1968, Blue Ribbon Sports started importing Onitsuka to the American market, including the TG-4 "Marathons", with nylon uppers and flat rubber soles, and their training shoe, the "Cortez", with an all-leather white upper and thickly padded soles. The first shoes to feature the Tiger Stripes were the Mexico 66 model, introduced two years before the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
100m series global founders tiger stripes series#
This series marked the introduction of the Asics trademark design of two vertical lines intersecting a pair of lines emanating from the heel of the shoe, said to provide reinforcement as well as decoration.
Onitsuka launched its "Olympic Line" after years of gathering suggestions from top athletes. In 1964, Onitsuka listed the company on the Kobe Stock Exchange and later on the exchanges of Osaka and Tokyo. Development of brands Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 in white/blue/red Jeff Johnson was the manager, and he would attend many Amateur Athletic Union meets and high school cross country races, where he would sell Onitsuka brand shoes. Blue Ribbon Sports had their first store on the East Coast in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, which was very near the Boston Marathon route. In 1963, Knight received his first shipment of Tiger shoes, and later he and Bowerman invested $500 each to form Blue Ribbon Sports (later known as Nike, Inc.). Ltd, and convinced the company that their product had a market in the US. After receiving his degree, Knight travelled to Japan where he contacted Onitsuka Tiger Co. After attending Oregon, Knight continued his studies at Stanford University, where he wrote his MBA thesis on the marketing of athletic shoes. Bowerman was also known for experimenting with the design of running shoes to make them lighter and more shock-absorbent.
In the late 1950s, University of Oregon middle-distance runner Philip Knight was coached by Bill Bowerman, one of the top coaches in the US. In 1959, the sneakers brand launched the Magic Runner with improved technology on ventilation to prevent blisters and increase comfort. The shoes were also worn in 1958 by short-distance runner Oliver Skilton when he won bronze in the Continental European games. Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila started wearing Onitsuka Tiger shoes in 1957, the first time in his running career he had ever worn shoes, convinced by Onitsuka that they would be superior to his barefoot style. Onitsuka Tiger worked with marathon runner Toru Terasawa in 1953 to develop a running shoe that would keep long-distance runners from developing blisters.
In 1955, the company increased its business to 500 sports shops across Japan. By adding cups and small spaces in the soles of his basketball shoes, Onitsuka made a more effective shoe in 1952 which soon became popular throughout Japan.
The shoe was a failure, and Onitsuka returned to the design stage to focus on the way basketball players started and stopped on the floor. Onitsuka Tiger's first product was a basketball shoe resembling a straw sandal. Since 1977, Onitsuka Tiger has been sold as a lifestyle brand of Asics. Onitsuka Shōkai changed its name several times before becoming Asics Corporation in 1977. Onitsuka Tiger is a Japanese sports fashion brand started in 1949 by Onitsuka Shōkai (鬼塚商会, Onitsuka Co., Ltd), a sports shoes company founded by Kihachiro Onitsuka.
0 kommentar(er)
