HOKA Uses Māori Names

Serena Solomon reporting for Radio New Zealand:

HOKA is a French American sneaker brand seen on the feet of celebrities such as Britney Spears and Gwyneth Paltrow, and exploding in global popularity.

The name HOKA is a Māori word meaning “to fly,” but you’re unlikely to know that. The company, which took in close to $3 billion in sales last year, does not attribute the name to Māori on its website or in a nine-minute company origin video. The brand’s logo, a bird silhouette, and its tagline – “fly human fly” – alludes to the Māori meaning of its name. A short video on HOKA’s ‘About’ page – as well as many social media influences promoting its products – pronounce the name wrong, saying the word ‘hoe-kah’ instead of ‘hoar-kah’.

All of these things are never a problem until they become one. We live in times when companies could and should be more aware of this, and proactively react. It’s not like they are hurting on cash to dedicate some resources to ‘make this right’.

The company can make amends by disclosing any engagement with Māori or engaging Māori now if they have not done so in the past, said Nathan Riki, a Māori cultural consultant. The company should also consider benefit sharing with Māori, which could look like contributing to the revitalisation of te reo Māori or committing to improving Māori health outcomes.

“It’s got to be a two-way street in terms of ‘what we are taking or what Māori are giving to us, but actually what can we give back to Māori?’ So there’s a lot of things that an organisation like HOKA could do to actually give back to Māori in this country.”

It’s not hard, you borrowed, now you give back. That’s how this works.

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On a second thought, what just occurred to me is that Kathmandu is a New Zealand brand named after a place… well, not in New Zealand. KMD Brands, the New Zealand parent company of Kathmandu recently acquired OBOZ, a shoe company from Bozeman, Montana.

Here’s how Kathmandu speaks about the origins of they name:

We’re from New Zealand, but we call ourselves Kathmandu — a bit confusing, eh? There’s history in that name, though. Kathmandu was once thought to be fabled and inaccessible, a bucket list destination for those dreaming of magical vistas and scaling mountains. It’s the place that inspired the creation of this very outdoors brand. 

While Kathmandu is much more accessible now, the destination still evokes the same sense of majesty and intrigue to us. New Zealand is our home, but Kathmandu is part of our roots and inspiration.

This is usually how this starts, right?

A few years ago I had a conversation with a friend of mine from Germany who didn’t know that Patagonia is a company not actually from… well, South America.