Hoka One One was founded in 2009 by two Frenchmen, Nicolas Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard. The name comes from Māori and translates roughly as “to fly over the earth” – which is an unusually accurate description of what the shoes were built to do.
The opposite of everything around them
At the exact moment the rest of the industry was racing to make shoes thinner and more minimal, Hoka went the other way: maximum cushioning on a deep midsole. The thinking was simple – let the material take the impact rather than the joints.
The design was not taken seriously at first. The shoes looked comical, and plenty of people said so. The effect, though, turned out to be measurable, and opinion turned with it.
Neither founder was new to the problem. Both had come from Salomon, where they had spent years around mountain running, and the oversized sole was an answer to something they had watched happen to other people’s legs on long descents.
From the mountains to the road
The idea was developed first for mountain running, where the descents do the damage. It turned out that the same cushioning worked just as well on tarmac – and that is where Hoka found the audience that made the brand.
Their signature idea is the Meta-Rocker: a sole curved along its length, which eases the transition from heel to toe and smooths out the stride.
The commercial turn came in 2012, when the American group Deckers bought the brand – the same company behind UGG, and not an obvious home for a running shoe. It had the distribution Hoka did not. Two years later the Clifton arrived: the same deep midsole, but light enough that the shoe stopped being a specialist object and started being a shoe anyone might buy. Most of what the brand is now rests on that model.
The name has been trimmed since. “One One” was quietly dropped from the branding, and the shoes are now sold simply as Hoka.
Why it worked
- They listened to runners. Feedback from club runners and professionals alike went straight into the next version.
- They turned up at races. Backing events and athletes built trust in the community rather than in an advertising slot.
- The audience widened on its own. It started with ultra runners and trail runners; the shoes are now worn in the gym, on the tennis court and simply around town, for the comfort.
The thick sole is everywhere now. It began at a company everybody laughed at.
Questions I get asked about Hoka
Does all that cushioning weaken your feet?
I would not tell you either way, because the research does not. There are studies pointing in both directions, and none of them is about you specifically. What is fair to say is that a deep midsole changes how much work the foot and calf do, so a sudden switch – in either direction – is worth making gradually rather than overnight.
Are they stable, given the height?
More than they look. The foot does not sit on top of the midsole so much as down inside it: the foam comes up around the heel, which is the part most people notice first. That is a different approach from a traditional stability shoe, which adds a firmer section on the inner side. If you need the second kind, the shape of a Hoka will not substitute for it.
Clifton or Bondi?
The Clifton is the lighter everyday shoe and the one most people should try first. The Bondi is the maximum-cushioning option, heavier and softer, and it earns its place for long hours standing or walking rather than for running quickly. Both use the Meta-Rocker; neither is a racing shoe.