The cult brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Onitsuka Tiger all have done this well globally.
Onitsuka borrowed from the air-cooling methods used in motorcycles to create vented marathon shoes.
Onitsuka started out trying to make basketball shoes, betting that the sport was about to take off in Japan.
Onitsuka remained actively involved with the company up to his death, serving as chairman and experimenting with new designs.
Onitsuka, who passed away Sunday at 89, went into the shoe business following World War II after tiring of selling bootleg beer.
For Kihachiro Onitsuka, the founder of the Japanese athletic shoe company Asics , inspiration came in the form of an octopus salad.
Creativity has been the flash of genius behind Twitter, Google, Facebook, great advertising for Geico, and those amazing multicolored Onitsuka Tiger sneakers.
Thus was born the Onitsuka Tiger, which was worn by the Japanese Olympic basketball team in 1956 and generations of Japanese gym class students.
Nike, Apple and even sneakerhead brand Onitsuka Tiger feel like age old next gen challenger brands with the right ethos deep in their souls.
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The company got back on its feet in part by going back to its roots -- the Onitsuka Tiger, which had been retired in the late 1970s.
The company has since opened 23 standalone Onitsuka Tiger boutiques in Japan, as well as in Paris, Berlin, London and Seoul, and it collaborates with fashion luminaries like Issey Miyake on sneaker designs.
It got a boost in 2003 when Uma Thurman appeared in the movie Kill Bill decked out in Tiger wear -- a yellow sweatsuit and a pair of gold-colored Onitsuka Taichi sneakers with black stripes.
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