Hoka shoes have their haters, but their popularity is growing, largely thanks Gen Z and millennial women

• Hoka One One grew sales 90% to $352 million in its fiscal third quarter, ending December 31.
• The brand is seeing significant growth in the 18-34 consumer demographic, especially among women.
• "It just expands the breadth of our brand from ages 18 to 80," Deckers CEO David Powers said.

More young consumers are opting for performance sneakers for daily use, and that's driving sales of Hoka One One to record highs.

Hoka's chunky look has its fans and its detractors, but parent company Deckers reported on Thursday that the running brand grew sales 90% to $352 million in its fiscal third quarter. Wholesale revenue for Hoka increased 83%, while direct-to-consumer sales more than doubled.

Deckers also raised full-year revenue guidance to $3.53 billion due to the brand's meteoric growth, the company said. Deckers also owns Teva, Sanuk, and Ugg — the latter is Deckers' largest portfolio brand.

According to Deckers CEO David Powers, Hoka is seeing significant growth in the 18-34 consumer demographic. The age group drove the largest year-over-year increase in sales in the third quarter, ending December 31.

"I think in the early days of Hoka, we were selling obviously to core runners and beyond, and then some people were using it for comfort and longevity reasons. And the younger consumers weren't really adopting it as part of their own yet," he said to investors on an earnings call. "But we've seen that shift change dramatically in the last year or so."

Gen Z and millennial women have especially driven sales growth for Hoka by regularly visiting the brand's website to view what's new and purchasing shoes, Powers said. The new Solimar cross trainer released in the fall is an example of this trend, he said. The Solimar launched without much brand marketing behind it, but is still in the top five of styles purchased by women aged 18-34.

Powers said Hoka is also resonating well with males, "but we see a great deal more opportunity to further expose the brand's product depth by testing access points to specialize in serving this target consumer."

Hoka is admittedly penetrating the all-important 18-34 demographic more quickly than it expected. But Powers credits the collaborations Hoka has done over the past year for helping increase brand awareness. Hoka partnered with popular boutique Bodega as well Moncler and activewear brand Free People Movement on releases in 2022.

Within its own DTC channels, Hoka consumer acquisition and retention increased 95% and 109%, respectively, Deckers said.

"It's working as we planned, probably a little better than we planned," Powers said. "But you're seeing teenage girls and boys trading from traditional athletic brands into Hoka and raving about it."

"It just expands the breadth of our brand from ages 18 to 80," he added.

Deckers company sales grew to $1.3 billion in the third quarter, increasing 13% compared to the same period last year.