It was hot for Paris Fashion Week. Hot hot.
Thankfully, I lived about five minutes from where I was meeting the HOKA team to talk about their latest collaboration with BEAMS. Had it been much farther, I would’ve needed a shower before we hit record.
I felt a lot of pressure to get this one right.
[More at analog.borderlands.cc]
HOKA is doing some of the most interesting work in collaborations today, yet I don’t think the story translates particularly well to runners. More broadly, I don’t think Paris Fashion Week is very legible to the running community, even though I believe it’s quietly shaping the future of the products we wear.
This was my fourth Paris Fashion Week, and I was determined to make it a little more understandable. From the outside, it’s easy to dismiss it as catwalks, exclusivity, and luxury for luxury’s sake.
It isn’t.
It’s designers obsessing over craft. Product people debating materials. Brand leaders thinking years ahead. And yes, a surprising number of people who genuinely run.
Ideas born in these showrooms rarely stay here. They filter into mainstream footwear, influence the next generation of product, and eventually end up on the feet of everyday runners.
That was the conversation I wanted to have.
Not about a single collaboration, but about why HOKA has become one of the few performance brands to cross into culture without compromising the thing that made runners trust it in the first place.
Thomas Cykana and Travis Wiseman are helping shape that story.
