REI has
HOKA Challenger ATR 6 GTX Men's Trail-Running Shoes (Outer Space/Butterfly) on sale for
$74.83.
Shipping is free or choose store pickup where stock permits.
Thanks to Community Member
sjjones for finding this deal.
Note: Pickup availability will vary by location.
Features:- GORE-TEX waterproof/breathable membranes help keep your feet dry in a variety of conditions; water-resistant mesh uppers provide all-season wearability
- Textured TPU toe reinforcements add durability
- Cushy EVA/CMEVA foam midsoles absorb impact for a soft, smooth ride
- Early-stage Meta-Rocker places the transition zone behind the metatarsal heads for a smooth ride and fast forefoot transition
- Internal heel counters enhance support on varied terrain
- Podular EVA outsoles reduce weight while rubber overlays and 4 mm lugs add durability and traction in key areas
Top Comments
Regarding build quality, HOKA doesn't put any priority into durability. This is a known issue with the brand. Among their trail shoes, the Challenger series has the least trail focused outsole. HOKA markets this model as more of a general purpose shoe that can be used on roads.
For hiking there's probably better options from other brands. On the Challenger outsole a large portion of the sole under the heel moving towards the midfoot has no traction. This could be a problem when climbing up and over rocks.
HOKA is more of a fashion-fitness casual shoe brand. The brand is owned by Decker's Outdoors, the same company that owns the popular women's fashion boot brand, UGGS. I think over 90% of Decker's profits come from these two brands. They also own 1990's relic, TEVA Sandals. The company has been around since the 1970s and they had no expertise in running or trail shoes prior to buying the privately held HOKA in 2009 from it's French founders. In the years since they acquired HOKA most of the original HOKA designers and brain trust have probably departed the company. Deckers has taken the HOKA brand in a new direction from a running-focused brand to something more of fashionable casual shoe brand where aesthetics are prioritized over functionality and durability. UGGS has been the main revenue generator for Decker's since the early 2000s. I suspect that Deckers has reassigned much of the product development and marketing work for HOKA to their existing UGGS team. That would explain why HOKA continues to fall behind in technology and innovation within the specialty running market.
43 Comments
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The company that owns HOKA is preoccupied with fashion. They started off selling flip flops in the 1970s. They purchased UGGS in the late 1990s. By the the early 2000s their TEVA sandal segment began to experience stagnant sales. The entire focus shifted to UGGS, a women's fashion boot brand with a characteristically thick sole and garish colors that included faux fur trims. They purchased HOKA in 2009. HOKA's signature thick soled design dovetailed nicely with the UGGS look. Deckers probably saw HOKA as potential "UGGS for Men" compliment to their mainline ladies fashion boot brand. Gradually, Deckers has shaped and massaged HOKA into fashion forward brand that combines tangential athletic function with eye-popping combinations of thick bucket-styled foam slabs and colorful but garish color way schemes. Deckers via UGGS and HOKA along with Crocs Inc made ugly shoes popular with the masses.
Deckers likely devotes very little funds to research and development for their running products. This is why HOKA has fallen to the rear guard when it comes to marathon racing shoes. Shoe experts have pointed out that the car on plate in the Carbon X is the least effective design on the market. This lack of focus and investment in innovation has allowed legacy brands such as Asics and Saucony, which had been meandering for years, to catch up and overtake HOKA in the field of plated performance shoes. Most running shoe brands, both legacy and newer upstarts, have co-opted Deckers by absorbing the most fruitful concepts that the original HOKA shoes had introduced such as maximalist stack heights and the rockered geometry. This leaves HOKA with a weakened moat to differentiate their products from competitors.
Interestingly, Deckers has not responded to these emergent challenges by reprioritizing innovation. Instead they have moved more aggressively into converting HOKA into a fashion-fit casual brand. There appears to be little appetite within Deckers to press forward with supercritical foam development. Only two models appear to have a supercritical foam. The rest rely on dated EVA compounds. Deckers has even established a new product line, Deckers Lab, that evidences a blending of design elements from their HOKA and UGGS. The new sandals in the Deckers Lab line feature HOKA foam slabs for the platform and UGGS styled uppers. They're marketed predominantly towards women. This mixing of product lines suggests that Deckers is more focused on scavenging the HOKA brand for it's technology to feed design ideas for it's entirely fashion focused product lines and instead of really investing in the HOKA brand itself to ensure it can keep up with the competitive running shoe environment.
So how do you know "most" people have issues with wear, I've have and had numerous pairs and never had a problem……. So there's at least 2 of us in this short thread who are ok with their wear……
Last Question do you have those paragraphs somewhere else so you can just cut and paste responses or do you actually type those in ?
So how do you know "most" people have issues with wear, I've have and had numerous pairs and never had a problem……. So there's at least 2 of us in this short thread who are ok with their wear……
Last Question do you have those paragraphs somewhere else so you can just cut and paste responses or do you actually type those in ?
So how do you know "most" people have issues with wear, I've have and had numerous pairs and never had a problem……. So there's at least 2 of us in this short thread who are ok with their wear……
Last Question do you have those paragraphs somewhere else so you can just cut and paste responses or do you actually type those in ?
More and more people are coming to this realization. HOKA never had much pull with serious runners and it's starting to alienate it's customer base because of durability issues, painful arch shape issues, and inflated prices.
By all means, keep buying your disposable HOKAs. But I think there's better value in shoes from Asics, Saucony, and even Brooks. Asics shoes have better rubber. Their Guidesole geometry is better than the squishy HOKA meta rocker. Saucony has the acclaimed Speedroll geometry. Brooks has full rubber coverage on their outsoles. Adidas and Craft Sportswear partner with tire companies, Goodyear and Continental to ensure their shoes don't fall apart prematurely like those from HOKA.
I can go on and on. Puma and Sketchers have more appealing running options. Nike has better plated racers.Theres an entire ocean of innovation out there and HOKA has sunk below the water line.
More and more people are coming to this realization. HOKA never had much pull with serious runners and it's starting to alienate it's customer base because of durability issues, painful arch shape issues, and inflated prices.
By all means, keep buying your disposable HOKAs. But I think there's better value in shoes from Asics, Saucony, and even Brooks. Asics shoes have better rubber. Their Guidesole geometry is better than the squishy HOKA meta rocker. Saucony has the acclaimed Speedroll geometry. Brooks has full rubber coverage on their outsoles. Adidas and Craft Sportswear partner with tire companies, Goodyear and Continental to ensure their shoes don't fall apart prematurely like those from HOKA.
I can go on and on. Puma and Sketchers have more appealing running options. Nike has better plated racers.
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in my case i have had plantar fasciitis for 2 years. have tried steroid shots, pulse treatments, tenex treatments, orthotics, PT, etc. shoes were causing me a lot of issues and significant pain. i came across Hoka as a recommendation and bought these,. They have helped more than any other shoe I have worn in my life. Doesn't mean I need to tell someone else what to wear on their feet since their user experience will be entirely different than mine.
in my case i have had plantar fasciitis for 2 years. have tried steroid shots, pulse treatments, tenex treatments, orthotics, PT, etc. shoes were causing me a lot of issues and significant pain. i came across Hoka as a recommendation and bought these,. They have helped more than any other shoe I have worn in my life. Doesn't mean I need to tell someone else what to wear on their feet since their user experience will be entirely different than mine.
I actually turned to HOKA several years ago after a foot injury, metatarsal fractures. Sure enough, the shoes with their rigid midsoles helped me get back to running. So HOKA does have a niche here as recovery shoe for injured runners.
But most other brands have adopted the traits that once made HOKA unique. You can get rigid shoes from most brands. Rocker geometries as well. High stack, high cushion options abound. There's shoes from other brands that have better cushioning utilizing Pebax and other innovative compounds. Shoes that have better rocker shapes with HOKA-esque moderately low heel drops. So there's really no need to stay wedded to HOKA.
And it should be noted that your comment about every foot having a different shape is pertinent to this discussion because HOKA has very particular footbed shape that will not work for a sizable portion of the public. The Bondi, Clifton, and most HOKA models have a prominently contoured arch shape that will not work with low arched feet. Usain Bolt has flatfeet btw. Just want to throw that tidbit in there because flatfeet people are not lepers.
HOKA has seemingly taken the tact of aligning itself with the podiatric community. It represents a sales channel for them. I think HOKA has also had some of their models such as the Bondi certified for Medicare's footwear reimbursement program. This relationship with podiatrists is unfortunate. Podiatrists don't understand running or biomechanics. They're more like chiropractors than legitimate medical specialists. Sports medicine orthopedics understand the foot and biomechanics. Same for physical therapists and physiatrists. When you examine a HOKA shoe, a flagship such as the Clifton or Bondi, the influence of podiatry pseudoscience is easily noticable.
The company that owns HOKA is preoccupied with fashion. They started off selling flip flops in the 1970s. They purchased UGGS in the late 1990s. By the the early 2000s their TEVA sandal segment began to experience stagnant sales. The entire focus shifted to UGGS, a women's fashion boot brand with a characteristically thick sole and garish colors that included faux fur trims. They purchased HOKA in 2009. HOKA's signature thick soled design dovetailed nicely with the UGGS look. Deckers probably saw HOKA as potential "UGGS for Men" compliment to their mainline ladies fashion boot brand. Gradually, Deckers has shaped and massaged HOKA into fashion forward brand that combines tangential athletic function with eye-popping combinations of thick bucket-styled foam slabs and colorful but garish color way schemes. Deckers via UGGS and HOKA along with Crocs Inc made ugly shoes popular with the masses.
Deckers likely devotes very little funds to research and development for their running products. This is why HOKA has fallen to the rear guard when it comes to marathon racing shoes. Shoe experts have pointed out that the car on plate in the Carbon X is the least effective design on the market. This lack of focus and investment in innovation has allowed legacy brands such as Asics and Saucony, which had been meandering for years, to catch up and overtake HOKA in the field of plated performance shoes. Most running shoe brands, both legacy and newer upstarts, have co-opted Deckers by absorbing the most fruitful concepts that the original HOKA shoes had introduced such as maximalist stack heights and the rockered geometry. This leaves HOKA with a weakened moat to differentiate their products from competitors.
Interestingly, Deckers has not responded to these emergent challenges by reprioritizing innovation. Instead they have moved more aggressively into converting HOKA into a fashion-fit casual brand. There appears to be little appetite within Deckers to press forward with supercritical foam development. Only two models appear to have a supercritical foam. The rest rely on dated EVA compounds. Deckers has even established a new product line, Deckers Lab, that evidences a blending of design elements from their HOKA and UGGS. The new sandals in the Deckers Lab line feature HOKA foam slabs for the platform and UGGS styled uppers. They're marketed predominantly towards women. This mixing of product lines suggests that Deckers is more focused on scavenging the HOKA brand for it's technology to feed design ideas for it's entirely fashion focused product lines and instead of really investing in the HOKA brand itself to ensure it can keep up with the competitive running shoe environment.
Them having the least efficient carbon sole has nothing to do with durability or quality. If they were half as bad as you claim, they wouldn't be nearing $1B in sales.
Them having the least efficient carbon sole has nothing to do with durability or quality. If they were half as bad as you claim, they wouldn't be nearing $1B in sales.
Consumers often make bad choices.