A founding anecdote becomes a business direction
On 13 January 2021 ASICS issues a release headed "ASICS RETURNS TO ITS ROOTS TO UPLIFT THE WORLD THROUGH SPORT", announcing a return to its founding philosophy as the core business direction for the year.1 The founding philosophy is the sentence hidden in the company name, "Anima Sana In Corpore Sano", a sound mind in a sound body.
The slogan itself is not new. ASICS adopted "Sound Mind, Sound Body" as its corporate slogan in 2007.2 What changes in 2021 is the position it occupies. The sentence stops being a line under a logo and becomes the thing the marketing is organised around, with an evidence apparatus attached to it.
Yasuhito Hirota, at the time President and Chief Operating Officer, gives the reason: "We know the COVID-19 pandemic has put even more pressure on the wellbeing of millions of people. We also know and believe that sport and movement can lift spirits and help people feel better." He adds that "for us, 2021 is about unlocking the unique power of sport to uplift our minds".1,3
Seven people wearing EEG headsets
The relaunch arrives with research. ASICS commissions a preliminary study with the neuroinformatics company EMOTIV, advised by Dr Brendon Stubbs of King's College London, carried out between 1 December 2020 and 7 January 2021. The sample is seven people, three elite athletes and four non-elite, measured by EEG across six metrics including relaxation, focus and cognitive stress. The reported effects in the non-elite group run to a 29 per cent improvement in stress coping and a 26 per cent gain in brain processing speed, with everyday athletes improving more than elite ones.1
ASICS describes the study as preliminary, and with seven participants it carries no statistical weight. What it establishes is the method: the company intends to argue this position with instruments rather than with adjectives.
Source: ASICS NEW ZEALAND Youtube
A tool that measures the claim
On 1 June 2021, Global Running Day, ASICS launches the Mind Uplifter. It takes a reading before and after at least twenty minutes of movement and reports the change across ten emotional and cognitive measures, among them confidence, calm, focus and resilience. ASICS describes the method as facial scanning technology combined with scientifically validated self-report questions.4,5 Solarflare Studio builds the front end in partnership with Edelman.6
A World Uplift Map follows on 1 July 2021, aggregating anonymised results by city, nation and worldwide, and the company sets itself the target of uplifting one million minds during 2021, routed through Race Roster and ASICS Runkeeper.4 The platform therefore produces a continuously updating public dataset rather than a single campaign asset.
An index with a number in it
The apparatus scales the following year. The first ASICS State of Mind Index appears on 13 April 2022, based on 37,000 respondents across 16 countries, with Edelman Data and Insights as research partner and Dr Stubbs leading. ASICS defines it as "a score out of 100, calculated based on the accumulative mean scores across ten cognitive and emotional traits, each of which are scored out of 10".7,8
The headline findings give the company a number it can repeat: active people score 68 out of 100, inactive people 56, and the minimum effective dose of movement is identified at 15 minutes and 9 seconds.7 Stubbs puts it in one line: "Just over 15 minutes of movement is actually all it can take to experience the positive impact."7
The index has run since. Fieldwork from 17 November to 21 December 2023 covers 26,000 participants across 22 markets, and in October 2025 ASICS publishes "Everyday Escape", a survey of 11,000 people in 16 markets alongside a controlled trial, reporting that fifteen minutes of movement produces 21 per cent greater mental uplift than a wellness holiday.8,9
What the platform buys
The programme generates campaigns of its own. In January 2023 ASICS publishes Mind Games, a study and Amazon Prime documentary narrated by Stephen Fry, which puts inactive competitive gamers through a sixteen-week exercise programme and reports improvements in ranking, cognitive function and concentration.10
Gary Raucher, then Executive Vice President at ASICS EMEA, describes the structure in 2023 in a single sentence: "Our founding purpose is literally in our name, Anima Sana In Corpore Sano or a sound mind, sound body."10
Neither the corporate nor the United States version of the January 2021 release names an agency, so the architecture of the relaunch is not attributable to one. What is attributable is the shape of the decision. A company holding a forty-four year old Latin acronym treats it as a testable claim, and pays for the tests.
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. ASICS Corporation, "ASICS RETURNS TO ITS ROOTS TO UPLIFT THE WORLD THROUGH SPORT", 13 January 2021, for the return to the founding philosophy as the core business direction, the stated pandemic reasoning, the quotation from Yasuhito Hirota on 2021, the EMOTIV study with Dr Brendon Stubbs of King's College London, the fieldwork dates of 1 December 2020 to 7 January 2021, the sample of seven people, the six EEG metrics and the reported effects in the non-elite group. https://corp.asics.com/en/press/article/2021-01-13
2. ASICS Corporation, corporate history, for the adoption of "Sound Mind, Sound Body" as the corporate slogan in 2007. https://corp.asics.com/en/about_asics/history
3. ASICS, "ASICS Returns To Its Sound Mind, Sound Body Roots", United States release distributed 13 January 2021, for the quotation from Yasuhito Hirota, President and Chief Operating Officer, on the pandemic and the effect of sport and movement. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/asics-returns-to-its-sound-mind-sound-body-roots-301207584.html
4. ASICS Corporation, release on the Mind Uplifter, 2 June 2021, for the launch on 1 June 2021 tied to Global Running Day, the method described as facial scanning technology plus scientifically validated self-report questions, the reading before and after at least twenty minutes of movement, the World Uplift Map launched on 1 July 2021, the target of uplifting one million minds during 2021 and the routing through Race Roster and ASICS Runkeeper. https://corp.asics.com/en/press/article/2021-06-02-1
5. ASICS, Mind Uplifter market page, for the ten emotional and cognitive measures and for the line "Move your mind, uplift the world." https://www.asics.com/gb/en-gb/mk/mind-uplifter
6. Solarflare Studio, ASICS Project Uplifter case study, agency self-published, off whitelist and used for corroboration only, for the front end having been built by Solarflare Studio in partnership with Edelman. The page carries no publication date. https://solarflarestudio.co.uk/work/asics-project-uplifter/
7. ASICS Corporation, "ASICS State of Mind Index proves positive impact of movement on world's mental health", 13 April 2022, for the first edition, the sample of 37,000 respondents across 16 countries, Edelman Data and Insights as research partner, Dr Brendon Stubbs leading, the scores of 68 and 56 out of 100, the 15 minutes and 9 seconds finding and the Stubbs quotation. https://corp.asics.com/en/press/article/asics-state-of-mind-index-proves-positive-impact-of-movement-on-world's-mental-health
8. ASICS, Global State of Mind Study 2024, for the quoted definition of the index as a score out of 100 across ten traits, and for the 2024 edition covering more than 26,000 participants across 22 markets. https://assets.asics.com/system/download_files/827/ASICS Global State of Mind Study 2024
9. ASICS Corporation, "Everyday Escape", 6 October 2025, for the survey of 11,000 people across 16 markets, the accompanying controlled trial and the finding that fifteen minutes of movement produced 21 per cent greater mental uplift than a wellness holiday. https://corp.asics.com/en/press/article/2025-10-06_everyday-escape
10. The Drum, "Asics Mind Games documentary investigates whether exercise makes you smarter", 19 January 2023, off whitelist and used for corroboration only, for the Mind Games study and documentary, the sixteen-week exercise programme with inactive competitive gamers, the narration by Stephen Fry, and the quotation from Gary Raucher, then Executive Vice President, ASICS EMEA. https://www.thedrum.com/news/2023/01/19/asics-mind-games-documentary-investigates-whether-exercise-makes-you-smarter
