BIG SHOES, BOLD IDEA – THIS IS THE HOKA STORY
Published: 22/07/2026 | By: Alex Courbat
When the first HOKA running shoes started turning up on trail runners' feet in the early 2010s, nobody had seen anything quite like them. Those big midsoles looked almost comically chunky compared with everything else on the market, and it's fair to say they raised a few eyebrows. But then people actually started running in them, and one run was usually all it took. Suddenly those funny-looking shoes didn't seem quite so funny after all.
The story begins in the French Alps in 2009, where two former Salomon employees and lifelong trail runners, Nicolas Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard, decided the mountains deserved better footwear. The running world at the time was completely smitten with minimalism: less foam, lower profiles and lighter at almost any cost. Mermoud and Diard decided to run the other way with one simple question: what if you embraced cushioning instead of stripping it away? Sometimes the best ideas come from ignoring the trend, and HOKA is a pretty good example of that.
The name comes from a Māori phrase the brand translates as "to fly over the earth" – a fitting idea for a company born in the mountains and one that wanted runners to feel less beaten up by them. The first shoe, the Mafate, arrived in 2010 and brought that thinking to life. Built for the brutal demands of ultrarunning, it looked unlike anything else on the trail, with its oversized silhouette and unconventional design. The runners who tried it quickly understood the appeal: more protection, less punishment, and a way to keep moving when the miles started to pile up. It wasn't long before road runners started wondering what all the fuss was about. As it turned out, quite a lot.
That was the moment HOKA graduated from niche trail favourite to genuine running heavyweight. Deckers Brands, the company behind UGG and Teva, acquired HOKA in 2013 and gave the young brand the backing to think much bigger. The breakthrough came a year later with the Clifton, which brought HOKA's trail philosophy onto the road without losing the character that made it special. It took the brand's unusual approach and made it far easier for everyday runners to understand. Before long, HOKAs were everywhere: parkruns, marathon start lines, club sessions (and plenty of coffee shops afterwards).
But, what turned HOKA from a strange-looking trail shoe into one of running's biggest names? The answer was staying true to the original idea while constantly refining it. Rather than treating cushioning as something to apologise for, HOKA made it the main event. Over time, the brand developed its signature approach through technologies such as Meta-Rocker, which creates a smoother transition through each stride, and a range of evolving foams designed to balance comfort, responsiveness and durability. The result was a style of running shoe that became instantly recognisable – distinctive enough to spot from across the road and versatile enough to earn a place in runners' everyday rotations.
Of course, HOKA hasn't spent the last fifteen years admiring its own handiwork. Stability technologies such as J-Frame and H-Frame provide support without making shoes feel overly restrictive, while carbon-plated racers like the Rocket X series have proved the brand can mix it with the fastest on race day too. Beyond running, HOKA has become something of a fashion favourite, thanks to eye-catching colourways, sought-after collaborations and a look that's gone from "that's... different" to genuinely iconic.
In many ways, that's HOKA's biggest achievement. It didn't just create another successful running shoe; it helped change what runners expected from cushioning altogether. Fifteen years after two trail runners backed an unfashionable idea in the French Alps, high-stack shoes have gone from curiosity to commonplace, and HOKA is still proving that sometimes the boldest ideas are the ones worth running with.
