The question for this week is.....
Why would anyone want a pair of Hoka running shoes?
The Hoka review will come next week. The reason for the review begins right here.
The Stage
As even most people on the periphery of the running community know, running shoe manufacturers went through a sharp redesign phase a couple years ago, adding minimalist options, low-drop options and low- or zero-drop-but-cushioned options to their standard shoe lines. It was around this time that Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall, was published, and barefoot running was getting a lot of publicity. Some smaller companies like Newton and, later, Altra, were putting peculiar-looking designs on the market. Running sandals appeared here and there. The collective perception of the ideal running shoe shifted just enough. The market for low-drop, minimalist and barefoot shoes jumped from niche to mainstream.
If you've read Born to Run (and I recommend it, even if you never intend to run barefoot), it's a great reflection and explanation of why runners wanted different shoes. The book didn't crash into running culture and spark a revolution all by itself. The ideas were out there. The book just put a lot of latent or upwelling ideas into a coherent form and presented them to a running public increasingly ready to embrace them. We'd been hearing about how (some) Kenyans ran barefoot from childhood. Some of us had heard of the Tarahumara before Born to Run brought them to popular attention. A lot of us had been or were currently injured in some way that affected our running. The time was right, anecdotal evidence and scientific evidence seemed (still mostly seems) to validate these retro, back-to-basics ideas. Running shoe companies moved to adapt to the new market, and their shoes started changing.
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A small digression for clarity: I group modern running trends into three categories.
1) Barefoot Running: Running without shoes. The human foot is evolved to run and it doesn't need help, thank you very much.
2) Minimalist Running: Running in shoes with very thin soles. The shoes are there to keep glass and stuff away.
3) Natural Running: Shoes are allowed, but they shouldn't interfere with your body's naturally evolved running stride. If you're drawing a Venn diagram, Barefoot and Minimalist fit inside Natural Running.
The common factor in all three of these, and in all the running clinics and companies descended from them, is the midfoot/forefoot strike. Your heel should not be the first thing to hit the ground with each stride. It will touch the ground at some point in each stride, but it's not taking the initial impact.
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Shoes clearly still come in different shapes. That hasn't changed. But now the trend is toward offering shoes with a more even sole under the heel and forefoot. Shoes with thick heels and thin forefeet force you to strike heel-first. If you cut the thick heel off and make it as thin as the forefoot, it's suddenly easier to land midfoot.
A lot of shoe companies went that direction first - taking their cue from the barefoot and minimalist trend, they made thin-soled shoes with little drop heel-to-toe. That meant the new shoes didn't have much padding between the ground and your feet. Now lots of companies have low-drop options with various levels of cushion.
You can cruise through manufacturer websites and see the modern trends reflected in new lines of shoes like the Nike Free, Brooks PureProject, the Saucony Kinvara, Cortana and Virrata, and some of the New Balance shoes (which kind of need real names, as I look at them).
You see a lot of 8mm, 4mm and 0mm drop shoes, now. 12mm used to be a common number. 15mm was apparently common, too. Now, not quite so much.
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So where do the Hokas fit in?
An important thing to note, I think, is that a smaller heel drop number doesn't mean a thinner shoe sole. You can have a shoe sole that's 10mm thick front and back, and that's a zero-drop shoe. You can also have a shoe sole that's 35mm thick front and back, and that, too, is a zero-drop shoe. If it's designed right, a shoe might have quite a thick sole and - here's the important bit - you could still run with a midfoot strike. That's how Hokas don't violate all the current running trends. Their sole is thick, but their heel-to-toe drop is around 4mm, very much on the low end of the spectrum.
The thicker cushion on the Hokas absorbs more shock when your foot contacts the ground. That doesn't necessarily mean it's for people who land hard (which does go against modern running trends. These days, we're all about high stride cadence and soft landing). One of the first populations to adopt Hoka shoes was the ultra-running community. Their feet don't hit the ground hard all the time, but they do hit the ground a lot, so a bit of cushioning is a nice feature.
We've had folks come through the shop who were using Hokas because of neuromas, foot surgery, knee problems or bunions. We've also had people who just liked the way they didn't have to feel the road every time their foot came down. That's why I like them.
Just like any other shoe, they don't work for everyone. I pull out my Hokas for longer runs and do shorter runs in my Sauconys. I can run with similar form in both.
Next week we'll continue on the Hoka theme and I'll post a more detailed review.
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