5) Asics
Asics is a Japanese athletic equipment company. Its founder Kihachiro Onitsuka, started off manufacturing basketball shoes but this soon grew into a variety of models for all sporting disciplines. Onitsuka caught its lucky break with the Mexico 66 design in which the distinctive crossed stripes were first featured on a shoe. Onitsuka merged with other company to from ASICS Corporation. The name of the company “ASICS” is an acronym of the Latin phrase anima sana in corpore sano which translates to “Healthy Soul in a Healthy Body”. Asics has always been the forerunner in the running and athletics sport industry. The height of Asic’s boom in recent history was when Ronnie Fieg started releasing the Classic runner shoes Asics Gel Lyte III in five unique colorways made with premium material. The shoe, available only in limited numbers – 252 pairs in total – was scooped up within a day of its release. Since then, Asics has re-released the the Gel Lyte models and has been gaining quite a following in the sneaker community. In 2013, we will be seeing more Ronnie Fieg x Asics releases and other collaborations with retailers worldwide.