How HOKA Took Flight: Nicolas Mermoud on Building a Brand That Moves Differently

When Nicolas Mermoud took the stage at Shoptalk Europe, he didn’t start with a chart or a slide. He started with a story. “HOKA,” he said, “means ‘to fly’ in Maori. So today, I’d like to fly away with you.”

It was more than a metaphor. The co-founder of one of the world’s most disruptive footwear brands spent the next 30 minutes unpacking how a foam-heavy, rule-breaking idea became a billion-dollar business and why feel was the most overlooked factor in product design.

The Downhill Problem That Sparked a Revolution

Mermoud isn’t a marketer or a traditional founder. He came into the world of shoes through mountain guiding, ski engineering, and ultrarunning an unusual resume that proved to be an asset.

In 2007, he was leading the UTMB ultramarathon when a severe downhill section left him unable to finish the race. The reason? The shoes available couldn’t absorb the damage of descent. He began sketching an alternative a shoe designed not just for support, but for momentum.

With co-founder Jean-Luc Diard, he engineered a prototype with maximal cushioning, a rocker sole, and lightweight foam, cutting against every trend in performance footwear at the time. The effect? You didn’t just run, you glided.

“It wasn’t about protection,” he explained. “It was about propulsion.”

The Feel-First Design Philosophy

What makes HOKA work, Mermoud emphasized, isn’t just biomechanics, it’s sensation.

“You pick it up, it’s light. You put it on, you feel the roll. You move, and it changes how you run.”
He referred to this sequence as a multi-sensory design arc, something that could resonate universally from elite athletes to aging knees.

That concept of ‘emotional utility’ (as he implied, though not in those words) became HOKA’s strategic advantage. Customers weren’t buying shoes. They were buying a feeling they hadn’t found anywhere else.

Breaking the Category to Build the Brand

HOKA didn’t follow traditional go-to-market paths. There was no ad spend. No PR campaign. Their first 30 pairs were handed to trail runners at UTMB, who quickly began converting others simply by wearing them.

One runner asked for stickers to give out on trails, because she was tired of explaining them. “I’ve already sold 20 pairs to friends,” she told Mermoud.

What followed was a bottom-up, product-led growth loop long before the term was mainstream. But it wasn’t accidental. Mermoud intentionally ignored traditional sales logic in favor of what he called “putting performance in motion.”

Why the Deckers Deal Worked

In 2013, HOKA was acquired by Deckers Brands, the company behind UGG and Teva. But unlike many startup-to-acquisition stories, Mermoud stayed more than a decade later, he’s still involved.

Why?

Because Deckers didn’t ask them to change. They helped HOKA scale without losing product purity.

“We didn’t want to be biggest,” he said. “We wanted to be the most loved.” Deckers shared that vision and backed it with capital, distribution, and operational muscle.

Mermoud contrasted this with the fate of shaped skis and oversized tennis rackets ideas that were ahead of their time but failed due to poor scaling. “We weren’t going to make the same mistake.”

Retail That Feels Like Emotion

Mermoud’s philosophy goes beyond shoes. It’s now shaping HOKA’s retail experience, including their flagship Shanghai location.

The store is a three-story brand ecosystem: a museum on the bottom floor, lifestyle upstairs, and performance in the middle. “It’s not a store,” he said. “It’s an emotion you walk through.”

This reflects Mermoud’s belief that brands should be felt before they’re explained and that emotion, not product specs, is what builds advocacy.

What Legacy Brands Still Don’t Get

Throughout the session, Mermoud subtly critiqued how legacy brands view category leadership. “They wait for the market to shift, and then respond. But by then, it’s too late. Real innovation means breaking your own rules before someone else does.”

This mindset, that risk is required for relevance, has guided HOKA through every stage of growth. From a ski engineer’s foam experiment to a brand redefining performance culture, the throughline is clear:

Make the impossible feel normal. Then help others believe they can do it too.

Independently Created. Not affiliated with Shoptalk.

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