Asics Brandography

We’ve been fans of Asics for a long time but never really knew its story or how it became one of the top shoe brands in the world.

As a society, we are bombarded daily by hundreds of brands, all vying for our attention and that click of acknowledgement. Brands shouting why they are different, why they are authentic and why you should buy their products.

Not with Asics. Perhaps it is because of the Japanese culture of refraining from speaking too much about yourself. Perhaps it’s the purity of focusing on the product and letting it speak for itself. Asics has a rich history, and we believe it is a story that brings even more value to its products. Asics was gracious enough to let us share it with you.

Kihachiro Onitsuka founded his athletic shoe company in 1949 with the vision of creating meaningful, positive experiences through sport. It was right after World War II, and his country was in shambles. As a way to lift up the youth and the country, Onitsuka set out to create athletic shoes, hoping to foster healthy and happy lives.

He believed sports could lift people’s spirits, no matter the age, level or type of athlete. Both the positive physical and emotional experiences created through sport can last a lifetime. This belief inspired the changing of the brand name from Onitsuka to Asics in 1977.

ASICS is an acronym for the Latin expression ‘Anima Sana in Corpore Sano,” which translates to “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”

The same mission guides Asics today.

Onitsuka started by designing a basketball shoe in 1950 because at the time it was considered the most difficult athletic shoe to make. Just two years later, Onitsuka got into the tennis business creating the first Tiger tennis shoe, which featured a special transparent rubber outsole with exceptional durability.

Since then Asics has created some of the most technologically advanced tennis shoes on the market, meeting the needs of different players with staples like the Gel Resolution and Solution Speed.

Asics uses its own testing facility, the Institute of Sports Science, to develop and test prototype products. The facility is impressive, complete with varied court surfaces to help the testing process.

Rather than evaluating products only from a scientific approach, the team at Asics also evaluates the emotional perspective. How did the shoes perform? How did the shoes make the athlete feel? We can all relate to the confidence needed to excel in sports, and equipment plays a role in that.

The human-centric science approach used for testing by Asics has four steps:

1. Define concept utilizing human movement analysis.
2. Design the structure and the material using computer simulation.
3. Create the prototype.
4. Test. If the new product does not perform better than the previous version, or those from the competition, go back to step 2.

Repeat cycle until it's clear the new product outperforms others.

To evaluate the emotion, or feeling, the product creates, Asics gathers feedback from athletes from all levels, including top pros such as Novak Djokovic, Gael Monfils and Julia Goerges. Asics continues to improve prototypes, repeating the process above until the product not only outperforms the previous version, but also meets the emotional needs of the player.

Often when new products come out, the first thing we ask is “what’s different.” With Asics, you can be confident the company believes the new version outperforms the previous, and Asics has the data, and the feedback, to back it up.

For the past 70 years, Asics has been developing some of the finest performance products on the market and has undoubtedly played a role in millions of experiences across the globe. Here’s to a sound mind, in a sound body, courtesy of Asics.