Hoka just signed 1500m runner Ford Palmer of nynj track club, same as Merber and Rutt.
Hoka just signed 1500m runner Ford Palmer of nynj track club, same as Merber and Rutt.
If they sponsor every 1500 runner in the US, Hoka is guaranteed in having at least one representative at Rio.
Pretty good. Two of your sentences didn't have errors.
riiiight wrote:
If it's performance shoe please tell me one race where they had an athlete do something competitively in a pro field? Recovery does lead to performance but the hoka shoe itself is not for performance. Even their 1 mile athletes were wearing other shoe companies during road races this past year
Do something competitively? Oh boy. Look at Sage Canaday. Ultra-Marathoner/ Marathoner. (sagecanaday.com ) Winner of the North Face 50 mile challenge, and many others. All while wearing Hoka One Ones.
You kidding me??? Dissing a company that puts their money where their mouth is? Footwear companies have no responsibility to carry the sport financially... ESPECIALLY a David in the face of the big boy Goliaths.
As an athlete and coach who spent many years working for footwear companies in sponsorship etc, I'll tell you that I am impressed and grateful for their incredible grass roots approach to the sport...shoooot, not only are they putting dough back into the sport in terms of athlete sponsorship but how about their support of Bring Back the Mile... How about their re-creating and funding the National Postal 2 mile for high schoolers?
Thank you HOKA for all that you do to improve and support running and track & field...oh, and the shoes are pretty amazing too ;)
You kidding me??? Dissing a company that puts their money where their mouth is? Footwear companies have no responsibility to carry the sport financially... ESPECIALLY a David in the face of the big boy Goliaths.
As an athlete and coach who spent many years working for footwear companies in sponsorship etc, I'll tell you that I am impressed and grateful for their incredible grass roots approach to the sport...shoooot, not only are they putting dough back into the sport in terms of athlete sponsorship but how about their support of Bring Back the Mile... How about their re-creating and funding the National Postal 2 mile for high schoolers?
Thank you HOKA for all that you do to improve and support running and track & field...oh, and the shoes are pretty amazing too ;)
Both pairs of 9 1/2 Cliftons I've bought have been under 8 ounces (7.7 and 7.8 ounces).
Truthfully, from a broad marketing appeal (people beyond very good track guys), having a stable of 4 min milers is more visible and does more for you to wow the general population than a bunch of 13:3x dudes. Plus, there's more parity in the 1500 than the 5k/10k year to year at championships (see Matt Elliot). The 10k results the last 4 years have been pretty much the same dudes in the same order at USAs in the top 4-5; unless you can get yourself a big boy, hard to break through there. Their goal is likely to get enough legitimacy to get 3-5% of the general running population to try their stuff; even if they had a huge coup and got the plurality of all the "legit" people, it wouldn't be as much money has having 1/20th of the nations hobby joggers.
[quote]buddag tahy wrote:
Also someone listed that they get 750 miles out of the Hoka? Lets be honest you can get 1000 out of a flat but that does not mean they feel good. Hoka's may allow you to get 100
Not even close. I went through about 10 pairs of Ghost. Always had to get new around 350 miles. Started wearing Hoka bondi at beginning of 2014. Went through 2 pair getting 700-750 on each. Bought the clifton which were lighter and faster. I raced from 1 mile to marathon in them. Finally got a new pair of Clifton after 750+ miles but will still run trails in the spring in older pair. Probably get over 900 miles. I dont even switch shoes when doing faster workouts.
I have a brand new pair of ghost that I dont even wear because I like the hoka so well.
I have had great luck with Hoka Bondi 2 and Clifton.
The Bondi 3 would have been a great shoe except the tongue was paper thin. I understand that the Bondi 4 corrects this problem.
The Conquest has a different (harder) midsole material then the Bondi/Clifton, and I am not a fan.
To the original posters point, I think they need to sign a marathoner in the Eggleston/Curtis/Arciniaga range.
This is Tyler, and I've been a long-time reader/poster on LetsRun, so I thought I'd chime in.
Hoka started out as a shoe for ultra-runners, so that's where their sponsorship naturally started. When they wanted to try to break into the more mainstream running market, they basically only tackled the other end of the spectrum (milers). This is on purpose because the mile is a popular event, particularly with young people like high schoolers, who are a big target audience (this goes along with the high school 2-mile, etc.)
That being said, they've also reached out to guys like me (I just ran 2'16'59) and have a slew of other athletes in that range which are basically their farm league team - guys and girls who they believe have potential to improve to national caliber but who aren't there yet. I'm super grateful to get support from them as there's no way I could get any kind of help from a bigger company that's only signing the very top level athletes. I think they're doing really great things for the sport in giving guys who need a long time to reach their potential the opportunity to do so (and like another poster commented, shoe companies really don't have any obligation or responsibility to do this).
That being said, none of their marketing would work if they didn't make good shoes. I ran my 2'16 in the Hoka One One Clifton and do all my training in the Huaka and Clifton. I was (like many) skeptical of the shoes at first just because they're so different than what I'd worn before (I used to run in Mizunos, mostly), but I pretty quickly transitioned to doing almost all (and now all) my running in these shoes. I run over 150 MPW at times and I give a lot of credit for my ability to stay healthy while running that much to Hoka.
Long story short, I think they're doing great things - both for the publicity of the sport and in the shoes that they produce. They're clearly being well received this year as they've grown something like 300% in sales and are now being talked about seriously on sites like letsrun. That's my two cents. Obviously no shoe is for everyone but don't hate 'em until you try 'em!
I bet I can buy some sheet stock EVA, cut a mold out, attach a pegasus upper to it, melt some sticky rubber on the bottom(or not, whatever), and I would have a pretty damn cheap alternative to Hoka.
Think about how much cheaper it is to make a Hoka Bondi then it is a Nike Vomero or a Brooks Adrenaline.... Hoka is making a killing on those things!
The Cliftons are great shoes. I went from Peg 29's to 30's to Cliftons. I loved my Pegs and still have fond memories, but they are no Cliftons. My only concern is the durability of the cushioning. We'll see how they hold up. Based on the testimony of this thread I expect they will hold up fine. I sure hope the company survives. If they don't I'll have to move to the vomero because Nike has seemingly ruined the Pegasus line with the 31's.
Tyler I dont mean to drag on ya man but seriously, you come on here posting like you actually accomplished something? 2:16 is no where near competitive. You have no chance of winning any A level marathons. Lots of guys run 2:16 and especially on the net drop course you ran it on.
Someone wrote that Sage has won some 50 mile race? There are no world class athletes in that field so I would imagine he should have won, right? When the africans start showing up for these types of events and the prize purse is better than 2k per 10 miles then if someone wins in Hoka's I will give them praise. I have not seen anything spectacular run in Hoka's I'm sorry. I'm looking at all the top Mountain races in Europe/USA and nobody is winning in Hoka's. The weak ultras in the USA may be won in a pair but nothing in the big leagues.
Leo doesn't even wear them in races as we all saw this past year except maybe one time in a track event. Hoka was his second option, he does not want to wear ridiculous looking shoes, trust me. But he does want money so big clap for Hoka for providing that.
2:16 is accomplishing quite a lot.
True elita wrote:
Tyler I dont mean to drag on ya man but seriously, you come on here posting like you actually accomplished something? 2:16 is no where near competitive. You have no chance of winning any A level marathons. Lots of guys run 2:16 and especially on the net drop course you ran it on.
You basically just told the guy he is shit. 2:16 is a damn, damn, damn impressive time. He busted his ass for that time, came on the message board did NO bragging at all and you rip him to shreds? Nowhere in there did he say he is trying to win "A" level marathons. If he (and Hoka) feel like their shoes can help him get faster then go for it! Hoka is investing in guys like Tyler to help the sport and help the athletes that the big companies don't really care about (paraphrasing you here, Tyler). Btw, please feel free to post your PRs with links to articles/results/pics so we can see how much better your time is than Tyler's!
As for Sage winning a 50 Miler with no "African" competition. That excuse is so old. He won the race with who showed up. Bottom line. It's not his fault they didn't toe the line. He still beat everyone else. He comes on this board quite often and posts (always offering good insights) so maybe if you're so good, you can go against him and beat him!
Tyler,
Serious question about their sales being up 300% and you may or may not know the answer...
How much of this due to the increased distribution channels over the last year or so? It used to be that you could only pretty much find them at two online retailers..Boulder Running Company and Running Warehouse (there may have been others but these are the two I bought from). You had to pretty much get them the day they came in or they'd be sold out.
I am sure some of this sales increase is due to the fact that they were a small outfit where demand exceeded supply (maybe on purpose..drive up the demand/build the hype). It seems once Deckers Corp purchased them many new models came out.
Any truth to the rumor that they are adding even more models in an attempt to get into the big box retailers, like Dick's?
He's running fast. You should listen.
True elita wrote:
I don't need to post my times because he is not in my league. He was bragging that's why he posted his times as of his times are relevant. When someone is running fast or winning major races with real competition then I'll listen until then stay off the boards brah
The list faster than 2:16 in America isn't very long....so that shouldn't make it hard to figure out who you are...
True elita wrote:
I don't need to post my times because he is not in my league. He was bragging that's why he posted his times as of his times are relevant. When someone is running fast or winning major races with real competition then I'll listen until then stay off the boards brah
If you aren't running faster than 2h05, then you are a piece of crap. Since you can't (that I can guarantee) then why are you posting? See how easy that is?