Obsessions
On and Hoka seized their chance when the sportswear giants lost ground. Now Nike and Adidas are accelerating again – and the challengers are starting to slow.
Nike is fighting back in the running shoe market after losing ground to fast-growing challengers such as On and Hoka. (Photo: iStock)
24 Aug 2026 11:05AM
Strength and speed don’t always go together. In some industries, large companies can get complacent, leaving room for focused minnows to steal a march. So it has been in the market for running shoes, where brands such as On Holding and Hoka have made inroads versus Nike and Adidas. Now, the giants are regaining ground.Nimbler brands snuck in when the titans of sportswear lost momentum. But Nike’s running business is improving. Its latest earnings marked the fifth successive quarter of double-digit sales growth in its running division. Having pulled away from selling shoes through third-party retailers, its wholesale business should return to growth of about 4 per cent by 2028, analysts polled by Visible Alpha reckon.Adidas’s running shoe sales were up almost 30 per cent in the first quarter, year on year — and wearers include athlete Sabastian Sawe, the first person to complete a competitive marathon in under two hours. Puma’s running division has been growing even as the company’s footwear sales overall fell.
