ASICS

Kihachiro Onitsuka began making basketball shoes in Kobe in 1949, reputedly shaping their grippy soles on the suckers of the octopus in his salad, and in 1977 his company merged with two others to form ASICS, from the Latin anima sana in corpore sano, 'a sound mind in a sound body'. Gel-cushioned running shoes made its name, and archive models such as the split-tongue Gel-Lyte III, reworked with designers like Kiko Kostadinov, have made it a fashion favourite. The Onitsuka Tiger line keeps the original name alive.