I work at a running store and aside from fitting, I work a lot with inventory and procurement. Can tell you that most customers have more than likely never heard of Hoka (or “one of them hookahs”). A common practice at our stores is to bring out a couple pretty established brands (Brooks, Hoka, NB, Saucony, etc) and 1-2 other mid-market or niche brands (Altra, Diadora, ON, etc), obviously depending on foot shape, length, width. Not only does it give the customer an opportunity to try out other brands, it helps our inventory because about ~30% of the time, a customer goes with a niche brand.
Helps out with keeping those established brands in our inventory for a pretty scary supply chain situation with the covid numbers in SE Asia rising, where a bunch of these companies manufacture their shoes. Pretty much every running shoe store in America is hauling ass to take in inventory to get through a pause in supply chain right now.
As for people wanting Brooks or Hokas, obviously you’ll have people that want them for different reasons. Over the past few years, I’ve seen more and more people that ask for Hoka for work, lifestyle use, etc as opposed to very little runners/walkers wanting them. As opposed to Brooks, which many of our customer base wants them for running/walking. Seeing a lot more people want to try ON out pretty recently, too.
As for Nike and Adidas, they’re crap. Nike sends us specifically only the Pegs and Infinity Reacts. Plus xc/track spikes. Nike commonly only sends product where and when they want simply because they can. They’re one of the biggest athletic conglomerates for a reason. Adidas stopped working with us a few years ago because we weren’t seen as a high value account. Just sold our last pair of Solarglides a couple weeks ago. As for Hoka, Brooks, pretty much any run specialty company, they want to send inventory anywhere and everywhere because they need to in order to meet their margins.
Not sure if this all adds to the discussion, just like to ramble about this kind of stuff.