It’s not often that triathletes, social media influencers, sneakerheads, and service workers have a similar fashion interest. But one brand born in the French Alps that fuses performance and a distinct aesthetic point of view seems to have united people all over the world—to the extent that it’s quickly pacing towardsÌęÌęin sales this year alone.

Since its launch in 2009, Hoka has soared from the seed of an idea—a shoe for easier, more buoyant downhill running—to what’sÌęÌęthe sneaker market’s fastest-growing brand. But was it word of mouth, clever marketing, an effective celebrity seeding strategy, or just a happy (and very commercially successful) accident?

The anti-minimalist shoe

Let’s take a step back to figure that out. Taking their cue from the Maori phrase “flying over the earth,” former Salomon employees Nicolas Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard founded Hoka One One (pronouncedÌęon-ay on-ay, as opposed to the number) to design a shoe with a cushioned, outsize sole that would mimic the feeling of bouncing on air. Compared to traditional running shoes, their models had thick, added cushion and a wider sole, used lighter materials, and featured a rocker shape in the midsole under the toe. This, they posited, would solve a universal problem for all runners: maintaining momentum.

“Jean-Luc is a visionary,” says Adam Chase, a runner and triathlete who has reviewed 1,000s of running shoes, says. “The first iteration was way ahead of its time. It was like a marshmallow shoe, and at first everyone laughed. But the founders really saw where the ball was going to go.”

Chase contextualizes that back around 2009 and 2010, the barefoot running movement was all the rage, largely led by Christopher McDougall’s best-selling bookÌęBorn To Run,Ìęwhich encouraged runners to feel the ground beneath them.

“Most of us don’t live in the mountains, we live on concrete,” Chase counteracts. “There was bound to be a pendulum swing [away from the minimalist ‘five finger shoes’] and Hoka really led this charge back to the maximization of running.”

But Hoka’s capture of the market wasn’t simply an overnight success. Erika Gabrielli, Senior Director of Global Integrated Marketing at the company, recalls that in August 2009, the founders were at UTMB in Chamonix, using the race as the first litmus test as to whether the shoe would be a hit.

“It wasn’t so much of a runaway success,” Gabrielli says. “But there was an early fan base, [our] evangelists, thanks to the unique and distinct design. It was a slow burn, but word of mouth in the trail running community and adoption by elite athletes [helped.] Some ultra trail runner friends of the brand wore the shoe and placed first and second in races in 2009, and from there it really started to grow.”

The first Hoka shoe hit stores in 2010. Around this time, the founders themselves were the ones actually on the ground, trying to land accounts at specialty running stores in the U.S. At a trade show that year, the Boulder Running Company bit and placed an order of 770 sneakers. “It was such an influential account,” Gabrielli says. “In terms of exposure and scaling. It evoked a feeling in our founders and they started experimenting about adding other types of shoes.”

The triathlete effect

From those 770 pairs, the super-cushy shoes became millions. Within just a few years, it was estimatedÌęwere wearing Hokas. Triathletes (and theirÌęof new tech) soon followed. By 2017, Hoka was the top shoe at the annualÌę, delivering a knockout to traditional favorites like Asics and Saucony.

“It’s a pragmatic shoe for a triathlon,” says Chase. “Runners need a good recovery shoe, and Hoka epitomizes it. It’s extremely cushioned, but it’s not just softness and lightness, there’s also rebound. In many ways, it’s the perfect shoe for getting on your feet to run after biking 112 miles, because you’re kind of shot. You need to get your legs moving, and avoid the ‘Ironman shuffle.’”

Hoka devotees became almost evangelical about the shoes, recommending a pair to everyone from runners who quit the sport due to knee problems to workers who spend all day on their feet.

“Postal workers on their feet yearn for something like this,” Chase adds. “Or chefs on rubber mats. It’s a counteraction to having to stand all day on a hard surface. They really are made for recovery.”

Hoka leaned into that comfort-for-all identity. Instead of doubling down on its identity as a running shoe, it expanded its marketing to brand itself as a shoe for all. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, the brand marketed to healthcare professionals, noting the incredible physical demands of their jobs.

Nurses travel over 3 miles through the course of each 12 hour shift. That’s twice the step count of an average adult, and more than a marathon every month. Thank you for being there for us, now and always.

— HOKA (@hoka)

Hoka still is, of course, a running shoe company. But Jean-Luc Diard’s innate innovation has created something much bigger than running, says Chase.

“The French way of thinking is very different and unorthodox by American corporate standards. He’s able to think differently, and way ahead, which has allowed them to be ingenious. I mean, you can see his work now at Deckers X Lab. The company is cooking up some really impressive recovery shoes which look like extreme, even more pronounced versions of Hokas.”

Running, yes, but make it fashion

Speaking of extreme soles, it’s not too surprising to track the popularity of Hokas amongst a fashion-conscious crowd, as the 2010s were undoubtedly the era of the “dad shoe.” From the surprising proliferation of Crocs and Birkenstocks to luxury brands like Chanel, Gucci, and Prada selling $1,000+ tourist-style sandals, and Balenciaga and Yeezy’s chokehold on the sneaker market, all eyes were on clunky, chunky styles. Hoka entered the lifestyle market in 2021, adding colorful suede fashion versions of its popular Clifton and Bondi styles.

One foolproof way for an emerging brand to gain mass attention is to collaborate with someone established in another space. Via partnerships with the likes of Moncler, Free People Movement, Engineered Garments, and J.L-A.L_, Hoka was able to “connect to culture” and “extend its reach,” per Gabrielli.

To get a sense of what that attention and reach looks like, consider that the #Hoka has 377.8 million views on TikTok alone, while #Hoka and #HokaOneOne has been tagged in almost 2.5 million grid posts on Instagram.

“I think the brand has always taken a strategic approach in terms of collaborations,” Gabrielli says. “We’re still relatively small, and that’s by design, but we know there’s opportunity in the fashion space. We see where we can find a partnership that helps us do things right that we can’t do on our own. We want to see where we can connect and be creative, defy convention, and do something that hasn’t been done before.”

She adds, “We’re still performance-based; that’s where the special mashup is. [Fashion-focused partners] can help to take that performance and position it in new and different ways without sacrificing innovation. One thing we’ve always found to be a universal truth is that everyone is looking for newness, and looking for comfort.”

Another thing people are always looking to? Celebrity. Among the influential figures who’ve been spotted in Hoka are Hollywood heavyweights (Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Adam Sandler), supermodels (Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid, Winnie Harlow), and pop stars (Britney Spears).

“It’s a bit of both,” Gabrielli offers when asked if Hoka actively seeds its product amongst celebrities. “We have ambassadors, athletes, and influencers, but we also see a lot of organic adoption—whether that’s amongst the average joe or celebrities. [An exciting moment] recently was Harry Styles, who we saw working out in Hoka.”

Gabrielli also credits community events, social media, and the brand’s company values (philanthropy, sustainability) for furthering the message and appeal. But when it comes down to the overall rapid success, it does appear to be organic word of mouth that has propelled these big-soled shoes to new heights.

Ìęis a New York City-based fashion influencer who has been wearing Hoka for about a year. “I first heard about the brand from my photographer, Madison White, who also doubles as my running buddy. She was wearing a pair on one of our runs together and I thought they looked really cool. She told me they were insanely comfortable and I was sold.”

Yanni, who calls herself a longtime intermediate and leisurely runner, is a fan of the cushion and support. “I have high arches so I would have to purchase inserts for my running shoes to get the support I needed, but now I don’t have to worry about that.”

As for the style, which she says is important to her as someone who eats, sleeps, and breathes fashion, she says she loves how “different” and “unique and fun” the design is from other offerings on the market: “The platform looks like a wave and the colorways they offer feel very tropical.”

“Working in the fashion industry for almost ten years now, I am very particular about what shoes I wear on any given day. Running shoes are no exception—they need to be aesthetically pleasing too,” she laughs. “My favorite thing about wearing Hoka is that style and comfort don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”

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It’s no secret that alcohol inhibits overall health, but for runners and other athletes, the risks are even more adverse. Drinking alcohol negatively affects your heart-rate variability (or HRV) and heart rate, hinders sleep, can lower testosterone, impair balance and coordination, decrease muscular strength, and impact bone health—which increases the risk of sports-related injuries. Simply put: you shouldn’t plan to just “sweat it out” post-drinking.Ìę

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How long does it take an athlete to recover from drinking alcohol?

Varying amounts or types of alcohol tend to affect people differently. But generally speaking, the more that’s consumed, the greater the psychological and physiological consequences. It takes the liver at least one hour to remove each unit of alcohol from the body, and the liver may struggle to remove all the alcohol overnight.Ìę

Alcohol affects the body in many ways, including excessive thirst as a result of alcohol’s diuretic effect, and diarrhea and indigestion as the alcohol wreaks havoc on the digestive system and increases stomach acid production.Ìę

What about your heart?

What’s alcohol’s effect on heart rate and heart-rate variability?Ìę

Heart rate and heart-rate variability (HRV) are two useful metrics for athletes to monitor in order to get a baseline of nervous system activity and gauge how the body is capable of adapting to different situations. Consuming alcohol is to cause HRV to drop,Ìę and resting heart rate to rise. A normal resting heart rate for adults is between 60 and 100 beats per minute, and found that consuming just one standard drink elevated participants’ heart rates by five beats per minute. Another reported that respondents’ HRV dropped by an average of seven milliseconds and their resting heart rate increased by an average of three beats per minute after one drink.Ìę

“Greater alcohol consumption is associated with more pronounced increases in heart rate,” said UK-based exercise physiologist Tom Cowan. “This may be amplified if the alcohol is accompanied by a mixer, which contains caffeine such as an energy drink or in a cocktail like an espresso martini, as caffeine also increases heart rate.”

Why is monitoring HRV and heart rate important?Ìę

ÌęResting heart rate has long been a reliable tool for athletes to monitor, but HRV has now become increasingly popular as a recovery and training metric—both in general fitness trackers and for athletes. An HRV device measures the interval between each of your heart beats, in milliseconds (m/s), over a specific period of time. More variability between beats gives you a higher score—and, in general, means you’re fitter and more recovered and ready to go. HRV tends to drop when a person is tired, stressed, sick, not recovered from a previous day’s workout or after a night of drinking.Ìę

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“A higher HRV generally equals better fitness,” said Harry Glorikian, healthcare expert and author of . But it’s important for each person to establish an individual baseline before analyzing changes in their HRV, he noted, because it’s a highly individualized metric. What is normal for you might not be normal for someone else. “The first time I saw my HRV numbers, I started to look for ways to compare it to others. What I quickly found was that my HRV was specific to me and that changes that I made in my life affected my HRV and those changes do not apply universally to others.” His takeaway? Focus on implementing your own changes when it comes to diet and exercise, and watch as your HRV increases and your energy levels soar.

Start by establishing a baseline HRV and resting heart rate every morning for a least one to two weeks, using your fitness tracker or app. Then you can note differences.

It’s also important to note that while, in general, higher HRV correlates with better fitness and recovery and lower resting heart rate tends to mean an individual is more recovered and rested, this is not always the case. There can be individual circumstances that go against this general rule and extremely fit athletes can have inverse effects. For instance, the resting heart rate could become suppressed from extreme fatigue and overtraining.

“Once you start to utilize this measure, keep in mind that training is not the sole influencer of this metric. Work stress, poor sleep, stressful family life, poor nutrition, and more can negatively affect HRV,” he said.

Why can alcohol can impact sleep (and HRV)?

Poor sleep, as well as stress (physical or psychological), can reduce HRV. A restful night’s sleep helps the body to restore itself, repair cells and tissue, and prepare again for optimal performance. So what happens after a few evening glasses of wine?Ìę

“Alcohol disrupts sleep cycles, and since it is a diuretic, it may lead to you waking up to go to the toilet frequently during the night,” said Cowan. “This leads to a reduction in sleep quality, has negative impacts on recovery, and can result in lower heart rate variability. Alcohol is also often consumed at social gatherings and parties that extend into the night or the early hours of the morning, likely affecting sleep duration too, leading to inadequate recovery.”

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