Onitsuka tiger brand origin

Yoshimori Fukui, a curator of the shoe archives at Asics corporate headquarters in Kobe, Japan, goes about his work with a combined air of efficiency and reverence, at times seeming like a highly competent, multitasking reference librarian, and at others like the keeper of a sacred shrine.

“Every shoe in our collection, in a way great or small, reflects the spirit of Mr. Onitsuka,” Fukui says, referring to the late Kihachiro Onitsuka, the company founder and a father of the modern global running movement.

“I feel honored by this job.”

A stocky, stolid, 30- plus-year-veteran of the company, Fukui, through a translator, listens carefully to my request. The archives are normally visited by tours of recently hired Asics employees or designers researching for a new shoe.

This interest from any Western media—the world beyond Japan discovering Mr. Onitsuka’s story—forms new territory.

Giving a terse nod and slight bow, Fukui strides through the windowl