My Gf recently purchased me a pair of Onitsuka Tigers and I was curious why they weren't named ASICS. I did some research the story behind the shoe is awesome. According to Onitsuka's website.
In the 40s, basketball grew popular in Japan and Kihachiro Onitsuka decide to create the perfect basketball show. All honesty, the shoe was super ugly by todays standard but it gave birth to the Onitsuka brand in Japan.
In the 60s, Onitsuka started making shoes for the Olympic games and for the 68 Olympics it released shoes with stripes, similar to those on the Mexico 66, calling them 'Meixcan Stripes".
We can actually thank a young MBA student from Oregon named Phil Knight for the popularity of the Onitsuka brand in the US. After he finishing his MBA at Stanford, he was began selling Onitsuka Tiger shoes from his trunk for a business he created with Bill Bowerman, his former track coach at University of Oregon. The business was called Blue Ribbon Sports but later evolved into Nike.
Mr. Knight was very impressed with the quality of the Tigers and that quality level continues to this day. The leather and suede uppers are incredibly durable. Aside from the original shoe's colorway, the soles are the coolest part: gum soles = bad ass. The suede fabric lay on the nose of the shoe is often replicated by other shoes and give an aerodynamic feel to the shoe. Onitsuka Tigers by ASICS come in just about every color combination possible and are must haves for the true sneaker historians.
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