From our special correspondent in fairy tales,
Fan of David against Goliath and Tom Thumb, here is a new tale to lull you. Once upon a time, there was Hoka, a shoe of French origin and only 15 years old, since it was only founded in 2009. Regardless of its modest origins or the short number of years, the brand has managed to conquer a large part of the enchanted kingdom of running against the giants Nike and Adidas. According to Reuters, Hoka’s market share at Dick’s Sporting Goods, a leading sporting goods retailer in the United States, was 13% in May 2024. More than Adidas (7%), and second behind Nike (32%). They lived happily and sold a lot of shoes…
If Hoka was only a dwarf when he was born, the brand quickly developed an ogre’s appetite. Its turnover in 2023 reached $1.8 billion, up 50% year-on-year. A magic bean-style growth that seems unstoppable since the American group Deckers Outdoors, which now owns the brand, reported a jump in Hoka sales of 35% in the third quarter of 2024 alone.
Comfort instead of the tyranny of minimalism
A fairly unique feat in the sporting world. “I don’t know of any other brand that has had such exponential growth,” underlines Olivier Bessy, sports sociologist at the University of Pau and author of Running from 1968 to the present (Edition Cairn, 2022) and The Great Raid of Reunion: a crazy diagonal (Orphie, 2023).
This success was not achieved with a magic wand but thanks to a concept that was quite revolutionary for the time: the size of its sole. Guillaume Vallet, sports economist, recalls: “Fashion was quite the opposite: minimalist shoes, with as little material and thickness as possible. » The competition therefore makes glass shoes for Cinderella. Or put another way, shoes designed to fit the shape of the body as closely as possible. She sometimes even goes so far as to separate the toes like gloves for little toes. The goal? Have the most “natural” stride possible. And sometimes the most painful.
But now in this increasingly narrow world, Hoka arrives with the exact opposite: an XXL sole, based on comfort and stability. And too bad (or even better) if your toes are stuck.
Why such a choice? The brand was founded in Annecy by two creators with a fairly confidential passion at the time: trail running. However, in this discipline which makes you wander on trails much steeper and wilder than running on asphalt, wide soles – to better absorb shocks – and comfortable shoes, still make a big difference. Real boots from the seven leagues.
A new and therefore more accessible audience
Second explanation for Hoka’s dazzling success, “the explosion of the practice of running”, continues Guillaume Vallet. In France alone, the number of runners increased from 7.4 million in 2017 to 12.4 million in 2023, according to the latest edition of the Running Observatory produced by Union Sport & Cycle. Worldwide, 610 million people run.
And this audience of new runners is a blessing for Hoka. Firstly, because when you say neo-practitioners you say a premium on comfort, the historic choice of the brand. Even if it means coughing up your lungs, having aches in unknown places and not walking for three days when you start the race (we’ve experienced it), you might as well avoid blisters. Secondly, “it is easier for a brand to establish itself in a growing market which has not yet reached maturity,” continues Guillaume Vallet. There is necessarily an easier place to take than in a blocked sector. »
The trivialization of road racing
Finally, who says new audience says customers who are more sensitive to storytelling. And here again, Hoka has a very beautiful lullaby to tell which we have already talked about: that of the trail. The practice has experienced enormous growth in recent years, driven by its cousin road racing. In France, in 2023, there were even more trails (4,268) than “classic” races (3,932).
The latter pays a little for its XXL democratization, to the point of sometimes becoming banal. “Today, the marathon has lost its myth,” says Lucas, a 25-year-old runner… who obviously wears Hoka. All runners have done it now – or plan to do it – it’s even a common joke: “Once you’re thirty, you either have children or do a marathon.” Trail running is the unknown. There are always new ones, longer ones, and races that are so different from each other that you keep the impression of doing something worthy of telling your friends about. And not something that everyone has done. »
The extreme shoe?
Hoka has understood the vein and is exploiting it to the maximum. “In the world of running, Hoka is the trail and extreme shoe. The one where you surpass yourself, not so much in your times as in the chosen courses and your adventures,” develops Guillaume Vallet. Olivier Bessy recalls that the brand is an official partner of several of the biggest races, including the UTMB (Ultra-trail du Mont Blanc). The shoe “establishes its domination a little more each year over the world of trail running. It has many partner runners and sponsors more and more competitions…”
But this success of trail running is not without its problems: its modest origins are far away, its ecological balance sheet is increasingly called into question, its professionalization is sometimes criticized and the overabundance of runners lie in wait for – and spoil – certain races, Olivier recalls. Bessy. Wake up, real life isn’t a fairy tale (even from the comfort of a pair of Hokas).
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