In the early 1970s, however, the company was persistently order-rich and cash-poor, operating on a 9-month business cycle with 6-month financing. To compound their financial problems, Onitsuka had decided that it wanted to get back the right to distribute Tiger shoes in the
United States, and had presented BRS with an ultimatum: Accept its offer to purchase 51% of BRS, or lose the Tiger contract. BRS refused, instead beginning the development of its own shoe. The company was able to sign an agreement with Nissho-Iwai, Japan’s sixth-largest trading company, in
which Nissho agreed to find manufacturing sources for BRS’s design and to provide financing and export-import services to the company.