TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has thanked the creator of the popular basketball manga Slam Dunk for designing the player's logo in New Balance products.

"Mr. (Takehiko) Inoue, thank you for the logo design," Ohtani wrote in an Instagram post Monday, referring to the logo that has been used since March 2024.

Ohtani has said he is a big fan of Slam Dunk.

"It's quite rare for a manga artist to receive a request to design a logo," Inoue said in a statement through the sporting goods maker.

"As a manga artist, not a designer, I pondered what the meaning and charm would be if I were to create a logo. After much thought, I concluded that the answers lie in depicting movement and drawing with expressive lines."

Inoue said he wondered what kind of logo mark would reflect the person's way of life and their essence, adding that the work of a manga artist is to portray human beings.

"Just as I do when creating manga characters, I first put into words my impressions of Shohei Ohtani, an unparalleled baseball player. That memo became the concept for creating the logo," he said.