Asics

A Kobe shoemaker who studied an octopus, named his company after a line of Latin, and sold shoes to the man who started Nike.

Big name·Global·Founded 1949·Members

At a glance

Founded: 1 September 1949, when Kihachiro Onitsuka set up Onitsuka Shokai in Kobe, reorganised the same year with two employees and 300,000 yen of capital.³⁸
Founded by: Kihachiro Onitsuka, home from the war in 1945, who started with the shoe everyone said was hardest to make, a basketball shoe.³
Home: Kobe, Japan. The head office is in the Daiwa Kobe Building in Chuo-ku.⁸
Owned by: Public, on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, worth about $20 billion in June 2026.⁷⁸
What it sells: Running shoes above all, plus a lifestyle side that includes the Onitsuka Tiger brand.¹
Size: Net sales of ¥810.9 billion in 2025, up 19.5 per cent, the fourth year running of record sales and operating profit.⁵

How it got here

1949

1 of 3

Kihachiro Onitsuka opens Onitsuka Shokai in Kobe and reorganises it the same year as Onitsuka Co., Ltd., with two employees and 300,000 yen.³

ASICS: History ↗

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Sources for what is above

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