Asics Ventures, the investment subsidiary of the sportswear brand, has acquired a stake in Ashirase, a start-up that got its start in the business-creation initiative of Honda Motors, called Ignition. Asics has not disclosed the size of its investment.
Ashirase’s product, also called Ashirase, is a system designed to help the blind navigate the world as they walk. It consists of a smartphone app, into which the walker feeds a destination and route, and two devices, one attached to either shoe, that provide “three-dimensional vibration.” As Honda’s press release of June 2021 reads, “when the user should go straight, the vibrator positioned on the front part of the foot vibrates, and when the user is approaching a right or left turn, the vibrator on the right or left side vibrates to notify the user. The navigation provided by Ashirase enables intuitive understanding of the route, and therefore the user does not have to be constantly mindful of the direction, which makes it possible for the user to walk more safely and with a more relaxed state of mind.”
Silent and taking up no space, the vibrations do not interfere with canes or hearing. Moreover, the devices attach so as to be “aligned with the nerve layer of the foot, making it easy to feel the vibration.”
The system was entered into the Asics Accelerator Program’s demo day in February 2021 and received an award for excellence. The start-up company was founded two months later, and in March 2022, Ashirase conducted a proof of concept with the Asics Institute of Sports Science.
