Men Hoka
Founded in Annecy in 2009 by Nicolas Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard, both formerly of Salomon, HOKA set out to make downhill running faster and built the oversized midsole that started the maximalist movement. The name comes from the Maori for "fly over the earth", and the men's range holds to that brief: deep, geometric cushioning under a light upper, tuned for the trail and the street alike. Explore the Clifton UTL and the Tor Summit FLD alongside the rest of our men's designer sneakers.
HOKA arrived in 2009 with a proposition that ran against the grain. While the rest of the running world was stripping shoes back, Nicolas Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard, both formerly of Salomon, went the other way and built a midsole roughly twice the usual volume. The idea was speed on the descent: more foam underfoot, a rounded rocker geometry and a shoe that carried momentum downhill rather than fighting it. The approach was called maximalist, it was taken up first by ultra runners, and in 2013 the label was acquired by Deckers Brands. The name is taken from the Maori for "fly over the earth".
The men's edit at MARAIS centres on the pieces that carry that engineering onto the street. The Clifton UTL takes the brand's best known road silhouette and reworks it for rougher ground, with a grippier outsole and a sturdier upper, in black and in cosmic grey. The Tor Summit FLD sits at the technical end of the range, a taller, more architectural build drawn from HOKA's trail lineage. Both share the deep compression moulded foam and rolling rocker geometry that give the brand its distinctive, rolling stride.
If you are cross shopping the category, HOKA sits alongside Veja in our men's shoes edit as the performance led alternative to a leather court shoe. The full sneaker range is at men's designer sneakers, the dedicated footwear page for this brand is HOKA shoes for men, and the latest deliveries land in men's new arrivals.