No time has been wasted since Accent Group snapped up the Australia/New Zealand distribution deal for Hoka in 2021.
Two years on, the global running brand’s products can now be found in over 200 stockists across AU/NZ - predominantly in The Athlete’s Foot; one of Accent Group’s key franchisees - and via two newly launched dedicated ecommerce websites.
Sally James, who became head of Hoka under Accent Group in August 2022, says the brand's Australian market has grown 20% over the last year.
This has been driven by synergies leveraged through Accent’s other licensed entities, with further ongoing distribution through its lifestyle channels such as Hype DC and Stylerunner.
But now Hoka is vying for its own dedicated retail doors, starting with the opening of its first Australian flagship at Westfield Bondi Junction on November 2.
“It is such a premium location, and we know it attracts the performance and active lifestyle consumer that we see as our target,” James said. “And I guess it's a nice coincidence, but Bondi also happens to be the namesake of one of our most popular footwear styles globally.”
Ahead of the Bondi store opening, Hoka will open at DFO Brisbane at the end of October, and will offer Melbourne CBD a pop-up activation.
The final piece of the physical testing puzzle is another store opening at Chadstone Shopping Centre before Christmas.
James says there is value in physical touchpoints, particularly dedicated retail doors.
“We see it as a nice opportunity to be a real brand builder and showcase the true breadth of the brand, and allow people to see everything that we have on offer,” James says.
“Hoka as a brand is an increasingly important contributor to Accent's overall business.”
Further on, the running shoe brand is also trialling an in-store wholesale deal with David Jones, in its two key CBD department stores in Sydney and Melbourne. Hoka is already sold through David Jones online.
The local growth in Australia comes as the Hoka brand recorded a 58.5% lift in global net sales to US$1.4 billion in the fiscal year from April 2022 to March 2023. Hoka is owned by Deckers Brands in the United States.
This is a ten-fold increase on its 2021 fiscal year performance of US$177.5 million, when Accent Group signed Hoka into its portfolio.
The recent momentum continued for Hoka in the first quarter of FY24, with a 27.4% lift in global net sales to US$420.5 million.
Deckers Brands president and CEO David Powers said there is certainly more opportunity for growth in the brand outside the United States, including with distributor markets in the Asia Pacific.
“Globally, I think our awareness for the Hoka brand is around 24%, certainly lower in EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Asia] and China, as you can imagine,” Powers said.
“We need to build that demand - we need to build a representation of the brand in front of the consumer and the experience. We see these all these markets, including some distributor markets in the Asia Pacific region, as very exceptional growth opportunities for this brand.
“But as I said at the beginning, we're going to manage it the right way for the health of the brand, health of the profitability, full-price sell-through, and consumer experience, so we're at this for a long time.”
According to James, there's no doubt that Hoka's acceleration globally has had an impact in its Australian growth.
“But just as important, it really is how we're connecting with our customers locally and bringing them to the start line.
“We're finding that these customers that we're connecting with locally are really becoming our greatest brand advocates.”
James said there is more to come for the brand in the Australian market, including event activations such as Hoka’s Fly Run taking place in Sydney on September 23.
“There has been a global rollout in some key cities across the world,” James says. “For us in Sydney, that's happening this Saturday. So exciting marketing plans, and rollout of Fly Run potentially in other locations is also something we're looking at.
“For us as a brand, the notion of joyful performance is always top of mind with how we approach things.”