A few years ago, before my knee replacement surgeries (2018 and 2020), one of June’s nursing school classmates told us about Hokas – the highly cushioned running shoe. They were recommended to her by her orthopaedist. Good enough for me, so I went down and bought my first pair. I’ve been in them ever since.

My current pair of Hokas.

Since I’ve enjoyed mine so much and often get compliments on their appearance, I was shocked by this headline in the Wall Street Journal:

Hokas: The Ugly Shoes Now Worth Billions of Dollars

The article opens this way:

They were big, weird, contrarian and French, and there wasn’t much reason to expect they would become huge in the U.S. In fact, when Hoka’s founders sold the company to Deckers Brands in 2012, their sales were around $3 million that year. Hoka’s sales over the past fiscal year: $1.4 billion. 

These peculiar shoes have become the oversized sneakers of choice for people who are hardcore runners and people who have a hard time walking—athletes, nurses, restaurant waiters, postal workers, TV writers, cool teens and their grandpas. Some wear them because they want to. Others wear them because they have to. Either way, a great many of them develop a fascination and then an obsession with their Hokas, which have conquered the hearts, wallets and feet of American consumers. – Ben Cohen, Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2023

The article goes on to describe their appearance:

Bigger was better. Like so many radical innovations, the idea might sound like common sense today, but it seemed heretical when runners were smitten with minimalist shoes. Hokas were proudly maximalist. They were also pretty ugly. (They have been described by news articles and the brand’s executives as “marshmallow shoes” and “clown shoes,” bloated, engorged, wacky, bulbous, extreme, “kind of hideous,” “why?” and “just…no.”) 

“Kind of hideous.” Really? And they’re from France!? Reminds me of Nathaniel’s reaction to Philip’s invitation to meet Jesus:

Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1.46, ESV)

Sometimes, something (or someone) rejected by the “in-crowd” becomes demonstrably superior and much sought after. And when it does…

As they got more popular, Hokas even got less ugly. 

Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought GOD’s saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. (Isaiah 53.1, 2, MSG)

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. (Psalm 118.22, ESV, compare 1 Peter 2.7, 8)

There’s another lesson to be learned from Hokas. Stay tuned.