TOKYO: Japan’s Asics on Wednesday (Jun 10) said it will spin off its high-end Onitsuka Tiger business to speed up decision-making at a brand that has been a key profit driver thanks to a tourism boom and a surge in demand for its retro-inspired sports shoes.

Under the plan, the nearly 80-year-old Onitsuka Tiger business will be transferred to OT Group, a wholly owned subsidiary, via a company split that will be effective on Jan 1. There are no plans to take the OT Group public, Asics CEO Yasuhito Hirota said at a press conference.

Soaring sales at Onitsuka Tiger have led to four straight years of record profit for Asics. Shares in the company, which competes with the likes of Nike, Adidas and Puma, have jumped roughly sevenfold over the past five years, giving it a market value of about US$20 billion.

“As organisations grow too large, decision-making often slows as approvals become more layered and time-consuming,” said Tatsunori Kawai, chief strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ ESmart Securities. “So a spin-off is an ideal move for such fast-growing companies.

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Ryoji Shoda, who was named CEO of the newly created OT Group, said the brand’s withdrawal from the US in 2023 was due in part to a conflict in terms of approach between the management of Asics America and Onitsuka Tiger.

“There was a lot of difficulty in reaching a consensus over how we looked at fashion and sport,” he said. “In that sense, by splitting off the company we can manage various issues from headquarters in Japan, and we can start (in the US) again.”

Shoda said Onitsuka Tiger would open a flagship store in Los Angeles in February. In Japan, the brand will also open what would be its biggest flagship store in Tokyo’s busy Shinjuku district on Jul 10, followed by another one in Nagoya, in central Japan, in August. Flagship stores are also planned in Shanghai, Milan and Seoul by September.

Onitsuka Tiger, which appointed Momo from K-pop idol group TWICE as its brand ambassador in 2022, has enjoyed surging popularity in recent years, aided by a revival of retro-inspired trainers. Its yellow-and-black Tai-chi sneakers were also worn by actress Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino’s hit 2003 movie “Kill Bill”.

In 2025, sales of the brand jumped 43 per cent from a year earlier to 136.5 billion yen (US$851 million), buoyed by strong demand in Europe, inbound tourism to Japan and a weaker yen.

Brazilian Ana Lebl, 18, was among scores of duty-free shoppers who bought a pair of the brand’s yellow Mexico 66 SD trainers, which feature a black stripe pattern, last week at an Onitsuka Tiger store in Tokyo.

“I’ve always seen them online and they’re so fun,” she said, adding that shopping at Onitsuka Tiger was high on her bucket list for her Japan visit. “Even before my trip, some of my friends asked me if I was going to the store and told me about the shoes they got.”

The Onitsuka Tiger business posted a profit margin of nearly 38 per cent last year, the highest among Asics’ five core categories.

In February, the Japanese maker of athletic and lifestyle footwear and apparel forecast another year of record profit this year.

Known for its minimalistic designs, Onitsuka Tiger traces its roots to Asics’ predecessor, founded in 1949 by Kihachiro Onitsuka, who sought to make sports shoes out of a belief that nurturing healthy young people was essential to rebuilding Japan after World War II.

Onitsuka developed his first pair of basketball shoes and named the brand “Tiger”, inspired by the strength and agility of what he saw as Asia’s most powerful animal.