In Japan and then winning at Boston 1951.
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Take a super close look in the photo of the footwear of 1951 Boston Marathon winner Shigeki Tanaka, 19, of Japan, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, who crossed the finish line in 2:27:45. He was running in “tabi” or split-toe shoes made by the Kobe footwear company called Onitsuka, named after its founder and which is best known today as Asics. Tabi running shoes were modeled after the traditional Japanese sandal which had a strap between the big and second toe. For some reason, the tabi running shoes were discontinued several years later, and when Phil Knight’s Blue Ribbon Sports started importing Asics, they featured a standard shoe design. Many years after its break with Asics, when Blue Ribbon Sports was now called Nike, it created a split-toe running shoe called the Air Rift, but it never caught on.