Celebrity running shoe brand opens stores in Manila

Favored by Gwyneth Paltrow and Kylie Jenner

US WEEKLY lists Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, and Kylie Jenner as fans of running shoe brand Hoka (other publications list more celebrities; Harry Styles and Gisele Bündchen have both been spotted wearing them). While already available in the Philippines when its initial stores opened in February last year (in Ayala Malls by the Bay and SM Aura), it held a grand launch and simultaneous store openings in Greenhills and One Ayala on March 14.

BusinessWorld took a tour of the store in One Ayala, which was small at just about 100 sqm. While the heavily cushioned shoes were on display, the store’s highlight was the foot scanner, which creates a 3D model of the customer’s foot. A tablet held by a store associate interprets the resulting data, then gives a recommendation for the ideal shoe from their store. Their offerings cost between P7,000 to P9,500. We were also told that a lot of the stores’ employees are athletic themselves, which really helps for them to understand a customer’s needs. Finally, the store is equipped with a treadmill, so a customer can have a (literal) test run in the shoes.

Prasanna Bhaskar, General Manager of Asia Pacific for Deckers Brands (which acquired Hoka in 2013, joining other brands such as UGG, Teva, and Sanuk) talked about the brand’s origins in 2009:

“He was experimenting with a shoe that could help runners run fast downhill,” she said of Hoka founder Jean-Luc Diard. “It was a shoe designed to help marathoners and trailrunners,” she said,