These were the shoe/outfit sponsors of the top 10 woman and men at Western States (data taken from iRunfar):
- HOKA: 4
- adidas Terrex: 3
- Salomon: 3
- NIKE: 2
- Saucony: 2
- SCOTT: 2
- Inov-8: 1
- New Balance: 1
- NONE: 2
And the shoe/outfit sponsors of the top 10 woman and men at Hardrock100 (data taken from iRunfar):
- La Sportiva: 2
- NNormal: 2
- Salomon: 2
- Altra: 1
- Aravaipa*: 1
- Patagonia: 1
- SCARPA/Karpos: 1
- Smartwool: 1
- The North Face: 1
- Ultimate Direction: 1
- None: 9
A couple thoughts:
- Western States seem to skew more toward ‘traditional road shoe brand’, while Hardrock seems to be favored by athletes sporting ‘traditional mountain sports brands’, which seems to match the differences in the two races.
- Not a single HOKA athlete among the top finishers at Hardrock. The tie-dye shirts, which were all over the WS course were notably absent at Hardrock.
- NNormal is clearly “overrepresented” with Kilian and Dakota both running Hardrock. But so far there’s not a single product on the shelf for people to buy. Good marketing though.
- There were a lot more runners without major/shoe sponsors at Hardrock.
- *Nick Coury ran Hardrock for Aravaipa and in adidas road shoes, which is incredible in itself.
