Asics

In 1949 in Kobe, Japan, Kihaciro Onitsuka founds the Onitsuka Co Ltd brand, a manufacturer of sports shoes.
The reason is simple: he wants to instill courage in young people through sporting activity, after the tragedy of the nuclear bombs that exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki a few years earlier.

Production initially focused on the world of basket, a sport in great expansion in those years in the land of the Rising Sun, but the feedback was not entirely positive.
Kihaciro realized he had to move to the running, and producing high quality silhouettes, numerous athletes were ambassadors of his creations.
The satisfactions were not long in coming, the victories were many but the greatest was in 1964 when the women's volleyball team won the gold medal at Olympic Games of Tokyo, fully sponsored Onitsuka.

In 1966 the most iconic sneaker of the Japanese brand was created, the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico and, also in those years, it was imported into the United States for a certain Philip Knight, who later founded Nike.

Success reached high peaks, in 1977 Onitsuka Tiger became Asics (Healthy soul in a healthy body) but in the 80s here was the turning point: technology GEL.
It was implemented on almost all sneakers and included a cushion composed of a silicone-based gel and encapsulated in a plastic material casing, which guaranteed superior cushioning and shock absorption, in such a way as to drastically reduce athletes' injuries; it was a system he did revolution.

In the following years, other iconic models were created, such as the GEL-Lyte III,  GEL-Lyte V and the Gelsaga.