Now that the dust has well and truly settled on the Western States 100 course, new data has revealed that one shoe brand was far and away the most popular choice among the competitors: Hoka.
A survey of data that was collected by the running site iRunFar and analyzed by TrailRunningReview.com shows that a whopping 32.6 percent of runners at the race this past June were wearing Hoka shoes.
The data was collected via video from a point early on in the race, and found that of the 369 competitors, some 118 took to the course in Hokas. Of those runners, 7.4 percent ran in the versatile and grippy Speedgoat 6s, while six percent ran in the springy Hoka Mafate Speed 4s and another six percent the propulsive, carbon-plated Tecton X 3s.
The results put Hoka about as far ahead of next-placed brand as Courtney Dauwalter was ahead of Katie Schide in the 2023 edition of the race, which is a long and winding way of saying that, in comparison, Altra was seen on just 12.4 percent of runners’ feet.
The Denver-based running brand is known for its low-to-zero drop and wide toe box in models like the Mont Blanc BOA beloved by Appalachian Trail champ Tara Dower, who put up a good fight at this year's race but DNFd at the 73-mile mark.
Annecy-based Salomon takes 7.7 percent of the pie, and Nike, which hasn’t previously been known for paying much attention to trail, was in fourth place at 6.3 percent and on the feet of overall winner Caleb Olsen, who raced in the new Ultraflys. Brooks, an early pioneer of trail running shoes, has slipped down in favor, coming in sixth place after burgeoning Adidas Terrex.
What’s perhaps more interesting is that brand representation at the starting line doesn’t seem to translate to representation at the finish. While the data collected doesn’t reveal who was wearing what, we can say with some certainty that only one person on either podium was wearing Hokas, and that’s second-placed Fuzhao Xiang who was powered to the finish by the yet-to-be-released Rocket X Trail. Winner Abby Hall and third-placed Marianne Hogan were running in shoes from their sponsors at Adidas Terrex and Salomon.
On the men’s podium, Hoka runner Jim Walmsley looked a dead cert to grab another podium in his Tecton X 3s, but he dropped out of the starting line up a couple of months before the race, leaving Caleb Olsen, Chris Myers and Kilian Jornet to take home the three winning buckles in shoes from Nike, Brooks and NNormal respectively.
What can we learn from this? That Hoka is officially a household name and that there’s no such thing as the perfect running shoe, probably. Read all the results at iRunFar and check out our guide to which Hoka trail running shoes are best for you.
