Exclusive | How these clunky running shoes became the ‘It’ sneaker: ‘Every brand is making their shoes look like HOKA’

Take a walk down any NYC street and you’ll see a pair of Hokas on stylish people’s feet.

Once reserved for hitting the pavement, the running shoes — with their hallmark chunky soles, athletic mesh and vivid colorways — have become both a street-style staple, a trendy boardroom accessory and everything in between.

And the proof is in the pudding: Deckers Brands, which owns the running shoe label, saw a nearly 35% increase in sales for Hokas to $570.9 million, the company reported last month.

Celebrities are, in part, responsible for the Hoka boom: Harry Styles and Blake Lively have donned the clobbers, while Adam Sandler showed off a pair of electric blue Hokas on the red carpet last year. Even President Joe Biden has been seen wearing the black Hoka Transports, juxtaposing his suit with the sensible sneakers.

“You can spot them on celebs and athletes alike which is always a boon for any piece of fashion,” Wardrobe Whisperer stylist Jessica Cadmus told The Post, adding that nearly one-third of her clientele style Hokas as an everyday shoe.

“Say what you will about them, Hokas are very comfortable,” she said of the sneakers, which were first integrated into weekend wear, but began slowly creeping into weekday ’fits. She said most of her New York clients first bought them for exercise but shifted to an everyday staple since their daily routines require blocks-long walks.

“The oversized sole is the Hoka trademark and although visually alarming at first, tends to grow on you; especially because they do, in fact, propel you forward when you walk,” she said. “It’s a unique experience and makes you want to wear them again and again.”

Coupled with the overwhelming rise of comfort-friendly attire post-pandemic, it’s the “perfect storm” for the brand’s success, Cadmus added.

“There’s also a sense of considered design when you view them, which I think makes them more broadly appealing,” she said.

Comfort is a big plus but the HOKA explosion can also be attributed to the endless colorways. Content creator, model and avid runner Renée Noe boasts a colorful shoe wardrobe stuffed full of HOKAs, estimating that she owns around 35 pairs in all different shades.

“I wear them every day. I mean, even if I’m going on errands, they’re shoes I’ll put on,” California-based Noe, 23, told The Post, adding that she even wore her Hoka hiking boots to Coachella one year.

“No one knows how to do like Hoka,” she added.

In fact, Hoka — which has collaborated with trendy, Gen Z-beloved retailers like Reformation and Free People — is the “most requested brand” from customers of Elite Feet, a specialty footwear store in Delaware, said Joy Hunt, who co-owns the business with her husband Jason.

“What’s contributed to growing popularity is this realization that it’s not just runners and walkers that need support,” Joy told The Post. “Anybody really could benefit from cushion and support, particularly as we age and as we just spend more time on our feet.”

That’s exactly the realization Colin Ingram, the brand’s vice president of global product, realized after wearing them.

“I remember bashing my feet into the pavement and couldn’t feel anything,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I was like, OK, there’s something to this. It’s not just a crazy-looking shoe. There’s actually a benefit to it.”

The footwear brand’s ability to deliver both form and function, experts say, is the reason for its solid footing. When the California-based brand was acquired more than a decade ago, it brought in about $3 million in annual sales. By the end of the 2022 fiscal year, that number was $1.4 billion.

But being embraced by the fashion set — many of whom would never dare flaunt a pair of running shoes a decade ago — is the most shocking.

“When we first started almost nine years ago, people were coming in and they wanted fashion, fashion, fashion, no matter what,” Elite Feet co-owner Jason Hunt told The Post, explaining that footwear brands like Hoka are now making the once-hideous ugly shoes “sleeker” and “sexier” without sacrificing comfort and appealing to customers.

“Now people are coming to us and they understand that … you get the function first and then you can style it.”

Lexie Firment, 24, estimates that she’s spent approximately $3,000 over the past three years growing her collection of vibrant-colored HOKAs, her closet brimming with at least a dozen pairs.

“I honestly wear them every single day,” the avid runner and content creator, who is based in South Carolina, told The Post.

“We were all trying to match our outfits and look cute while we were running instead of just throwing on an old T-shirt and shorts,” she said, praising the shoe as so “stylish” that she wears a pair with any outfit.

She also works at a local running store — Palmetto Running Company — where it’s “easy to sell” the shoe because of how much she adores them. Not to mention, HOKAs are “probably one of our best-selling shoes,” she noted.

And HOKA is giving other footwear brands a run for their money. Competitors are looking to the trendsetters when designing their own shoes bigger and bulkier, yet lighter, said Jason.

In a way, he added, they’re trying to “out-HOKA HOKA.”

“If you’re the leader of the industry, people do what you do. No one follows a bad trend,” he said. “Everybody, every brand is making their shoes look like HOKA.”