Kihachiro Onitsuka

Founder of Onitsuka Tiger, later ASICS

With the Summer Olympics underway, I should probably include something sporty in this week’s list. Honestly though, I'm so out of it with the whole thing that when a co-worker told me there were photos of the Opening Ceremony online, I thought she meant a new location of the clothing store...

Still, I watch Project Runway and being an Olympian seems pretty cool. Also cool? Kihachiro Onitsuka, manufacturer of the coolest sneakers out there.

I admit, I'm not sneaker crazy, but these are usually the only ones in the store that I totally could go for. I love that they’ve stayed true to original vintage designs, but I also love that they’ve stayed relevant and modern with their poppy colors.

The man himself, who passed away last year at age 89, was as radical as his designs. According to his company's site he spent “years in the military and having worked for a company who bought and sold beer on the black market” before he began manufacturing shoes. He found inspiration in octopus suction cups, he worked with marathon runners to fix the major problem of blisters, and he was an awesome boss who in 1958, “decided that Onitsuka should not become a family-run business, but an employee-run business. He distributed 70 percent of the shares to his employees.”