ASICS America history

ASICS developed shoes for Japan's Olympic teams to wear to the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

From this point forward, the MARUP series adopts a variety of advanced materials, all the way to the year 1981, when the successor SORTIE series is released.

A joint venture with Cambuci, S.A. began making and selling ASICS brand shoes in Brazil in mid-1984.

ASICS designers focused on the problem of minimizing runners' energy loss in the Task XL-1, which came out in 1985.

That all changed in 1986 when the company releases the first shoe with their newly-developed αGEL material.

ASICS began building a new ¥4 billion ($27 million) sports engineering lab in Kobe in 1987.

Licensed production of ASICS wrestling shoes began in mainland China in early 1988.

The United States unit, which was strong in running, volleyball, and wrestling markets, had sales of $110 million in 1989.

ASICS began to shift production from South Korea to Indonesia in 1990 due to rising labor costs and frequent strikes.

As official shoe supplier for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, ASICS supplied shoes for 20,000 Olympic staff and 60,000 torchbearers.

After a return to profitability, sales fell 9 percent to ¥94.62 billion in 1994-95, producing a loss of ¥1.13 billion.

The company's United States operations were reorganized in 1995; by this time, ASICS Tiger had sales in the range of $250 million a year.

The Tiger Paw Cyberzero of 1996 featured a molded heel protector and "holding belts" or straps for support and fit.

To counter, ASICS released a line of shoes without its trademark stripes in April 1997.

2000: Naoko Takahashi wins women's marathon at Sydney Olympics wearing ASICS.

Revenues were ¥128.9 billion ($969 million) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002.

In 2006 Asics generated 171 billion yen in net sales and 13 billion yen in net income making this brand a huge success all over the world.

The company also launched the Animal First sneakers in 2007 and won the prize for the first Kids Design Award.

In October 2011, Asics announced they would be the new manufacturer for the Australian Cricket Team, replacing German manufacturer Adidas.

Asics x Ronnie Feig GEL-Lyte V "Cove" (2014)

Sure, part of that owed to the silhouette’s 25th anniversary celebration in 2015 that saw a slew of collaborations and limited editions, but it was still a problem nonetheless.

Rather than rely on yet another similar silhouette, in 2016 Asics reissued the GEL-Mai, first as part of a Kith collaboration and later alongside Slam Jam, Bodega and mita sneakers.

Next came the GEL-Diablo in 2017, Asics bid to capitalize on the chunky retro runner trend.