In running, the shoe has to work before the story does

In running, the shoe has to work before the story does

Nike, On, Hoka, Adidas, and New Balance are being sorted this year by the one thing marketing cannot fake, and Puma is on the wrong side of it.

Margaux Vermeersch

Photo Miguel A Amutio / Unsplash

In running, the shoe has to work before the story does. A handbag can carry a glued lining down a runway; a road shoe cannot, because a stranger puts twenty miles a week through the foam and it tells the truth in about a month. That is why 2026 sorts the category by who can actually build the thing.

Where the year left them:

Nike: five straight quarters of double-digit running growth, recovering on real product, not a campaign
On: up 30 percent, past three billion Swiss francs, and past Hoka with teens
New Balance: up 19 percent to about 9.2 billion dollars, roughly 180 percent above 2020
Adidas: up 13 percent, then a sub-two-hour marathon you cannot fake
Puma: down 8 percent, its own chief executive calling it "too commercial"

The selling happens after the spectacle, where the shoe that works wins.