Revenue: US$3.58 billion

Country of Origin: Japan

Founded: 1949

Employees: 8,223

ASICS is Japan's shoes manufacturer of athletic shoes, apparel and sports equipment. Founded and still based in Kobe, ASICS began shortly after WWII when Kihachiro Onitsuka launched an athletic footwear company with the aim of inspiring Japanese youth to be more physically active. In 1977, he changed the name of his company to an acronym representing the Latin phrase “anima sana in corpore sano,” which translates to “a sound mind in a sound body.”

ASICS signature shoe, the Onitsuka Tiger, was also the company's first product, released in 1949. The success of the Tiger prompted a young Phil Knight (Co-Founder of Nike) to start his own athletic shoe company so he could distribute the Onitsuka Tiger in the US. Today, ASICS makes 437 different styles of athletic shoes for men and women.

ASICS Ltd. began as Onitsuka Co., Ltd on September 1, 1949.Founder Kihachiro Onitsuka began manufacturing basketball shoes in his home town of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The range of sports activities serviced by the company expanded to a variety of Olympic styles used throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s by athletes worldwide. Onitsuka became particularly renowned for the Mexico 66 design-- in which the distinctive crossed stripes (now synonymous with the company brand) were featured for the first time. Martial-arts star Bruce Lee was the first known celebrity to popularize this design. Onitsuka Tiger merged with GTO and JELENK to form ASICS Corporation in 1977. Despite the name change a vintage range of ASICS shoes are still produced and sold internationally under the Onitsuka Tiger label.

ASICS generated 171 billion yen in net sales and 13 billion yen in net income in fiscal year 2006. Sixty-six percent of the company's income came from the sale of sports shoes, 24% from sportswear, and 10% from sports equipment. Forty-nine percent of the company's sales were in Japan, 28% in North America, and 19% in Europe.

ASICS bought the Swedish outdoor brand Haglöfs, for SEK1,000,000,000 ($128.7million) on July 12, 2010.[12] The company announced on October 4, 2011 that it would be the new official kit manufacturer for the Australian Cricket Team--replacing German manufacturer Adidas.

ASICS announced in March 2021 that it would continue to source cotton from Xinjiang despite public criticism that such cotton had been produced with forced Uyghur labor.