ASICS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Type | Limited |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1949 |
| Founder(s) | Kihachiro Onitsuka |
| Headquarters | Kobe, Japan |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Kiyomi Wada (Chairman) Motoi Oyama (President) |
| Industry | Sportswear Sports Equipment |
| Products | Athletic shoes Apparel Sports equipment |
| Employees | (March 2007) 23,972 |
| Website | Asics.com |
ASICS is a Japanese athletic equipment company. Asics produces professional footwear and sports equipment designed for football, running, netball, tennis, badminton, squash, martial arts, cricket, golf, wrestling, track & field, cross-training, volleyball, cheerleading, lacrosse, and for many other sport disciplines. Presently the company has become widely renowned for their running shoes as being amongst the top performance footwear in the market.
Contents |
[edit] Early history
ASICS Ltd. began as Onitsuka Co., Ltd on September 1, 1949[1]. Its founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka, began manufacturing basketball shoes in his home town of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Soon after the range of sports activities widened 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. In 1977, Onitsuka Tiger merged with GTO and JELENK to form ASICS Corporation. Despite the name change, a vintage range of Asics shoes are still produced and sold internationally under the Onitsuka label.
[edit] Company name
The name of the company "ASICS" is an acronym of the Latin phrase "anima sana in corpore sano" which translates to "a healthy soul in a healthy body" or "a sound mind in a sound body"[2]. Since 2007 there has been a larger emphasis placed on this acronym.
[edit] 2006
In its 2006 fiscal year, ASICS generated 171 billion Yen in net sales and 13 billion yen in net income. 66 percent of the company's income comes from the sale of sports shoes, 24 percent from sportswear, and 10 percent from sports equipment. 49 percent of the company's sales are in Japan, 18 percent in North America, and 29 percent in Europe.
[edit] Sponsorship
Sportswear and sports equipment manufacturer Asics sponsors many nationally ranked NAIA and NCAA men’s and women’s teams, as well as the national teams of: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Japan, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. The company also sponsors individuals and teams that compete in the sports of volleyball, football, netball, athletics, cricket, tennis, triathlon, and wrestling. Recently ASICS was the official apparel sponsor of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Asics also supplied apparel to the Italian, Dutch, Irish, South Korean and Australian teams that competed at the 2007 World Athletic Championships in Osaka, Japan.
[edit] References
- ^ "Asics History". http://www.asics.com/aboutus/index_C.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-24.
- ^ "Asics Corporate Social Responsibility". http://www.asics.com/csr.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-31.
