The Most Interesting Brands in Sneakers Right Now

While Nike works on its turnaround, five brands are quietly taking the market it built.

For the last thirty years, the sneaker conversation started and ended with Nike. That’s changing. Not dramatically, not all at once, but in quarterly earnings reports and sell-through data and lines forming outside doors that wouldn’t have been on anyone’s radar five years ago.

People think Nike is broken. Hot takes are everywhere predicting their demise.

I disagree.

Elliott Hill took over as CEO in October 2024 inheriting a company that had spent several years prioritizing DTC over wholesale, lifestyle over performance, and margin over market share. The correction is real and it’s underway. But Q3 FY2026 revenue came in flat at $11.3 billion, the stock hit a nine-year low earlier this year, and Greater China is expected to fall 20% in Q4. Turnarounds take time.

While Nike does the work, the brands below have been quietly taking ground.

Worth noting: these are established global brands with public earnings data. The boutique world, the emerging labels, the heritage brands having quiet moments... that’s a different conversation, and one worth having separately.

On Running

On reported Q1 2026 net sales of CHF 831.9 million (~$1.07 billion) last week, up 26.4% on a constant currency basis, the first time On has exceeded CHF 800 million in a single quarter. The headline is impressive. The details are more interesting.

Asia-Pacific grew 61.4% on a constant currency basis and now represents more than 20% of global net sales. Apparel grew 57.5% on a constant currency basis. Gross profit margin reached 64.2%, up 430 basis points year over year, despite meaningful headwinds from higher US tariffs.

That last part is worth reading twice. Margin expansion while absorbing tariff costs. In this environment. That’s a brand with genuine pricing power, and pricing power is earned, not manufactured. It comes from consumers deciding the product is worth what you’re asking for it regardless of what else is available.

On raised full-year guidance. Again.

A brand that figures out how to operate at scale without losing the thing that made people care about it in the first place is rare. On is doing it.

The ASICS Gel-1130… the shoe that quietly became a wardrobe staple while everyone was watching for the next Nike drop. 📸: Asphaltgold

ASICS

ASICS reported Q1 2026 net sales up 29.7% year over year to approximately $1.71 billion last week, with operating profit up 36.5%. Operating margin expanded to 22.5%.

The SportStyle category, home to the Gel-1130, Gel-NYC, and the Blast franchise, surged 69.6% year over year. North America, which has historically been one of the most structurally difficult markets for ASICS to crack, accelerated with sales up 23% and the premium run specialty channel growing 34.9%.

Shares fell 6% after the report because ASICS held full-year guidance rather than raising it. The market wanted more.

I’ve been watching this brand for a long time. Getting punished for a record quarter because you weren’t bullish enough about the future is not a problem. That’s a brand that has earned the right to be measured. The Gel-1130 becoming a genuine wardrobe staple, SportStyle finally connecting in the US the way it has in Europe and Asia for years... none of it happened overnight. It happened because the product was always good and the market finally caught up.

Saucony

Saucony hit $155.9 million in Q1 2026, up 20.1% year over year, a record quarterly revenue for the brand. That’s on top of a full year 2025 in which Saucony grew 31.1% to $533 million.

What I find most interesting about Saucony isn’t the numbers. It’s the methodology. Record Google search interest in key cities like London, driven by a targeted city strategy that builds brand heat geographically before scaling it nationally. The Minted collaboration doing genuine cultural work. A new CMO, Wendy Kula, who came from Nike where she led women’s brand marketing for North America.

Saucony is building the way the boutique world has always built, intentionally, with patience, market by market, just at a larger scale than boutiques ever could. The brands that tried to shortcut that process ended up with one viral moment and a clearance rack. Saucony is playing a longer game and the numbers are showing it.

Salomon

Salomon’s parent company Amer Sports reported Outdoor Performance segment revenue up 42% to $714 million earlier this week, with direct-to-consumer sales in the segment growing 57%. Amer Sports raised full-year 2026 revenue growth guidance from 16-18% to 20-22% on the back of it.

The Salomon story over the last three years is one of the more remarkable brand evolutions in the industry. They went from a ski and trail running company with a devoted cult following to a genuine lifestyle force... without abandoning the performance credibility that made people trust them in the first place.

Most brands that attempt that crossover lose their core audience in the process. The performance community is unforgiving about authenticity. Salomon kept both, which is genuinely difficult, and the market is rewarding them for it.

HOKA

Deckers reported full fiscal year 2026 results yesterday. HOKA posted $2.587 billion in net sales for the full year, up 15.9%. A record year. HOKA and UGG together added more than $500 million in revenue compared with the previous year’s own record levels.

HOKA is approaching $2.6 billion annually and growing at nearly 16% while Nike is flat. That’s not a niche brand finding its moment. That’s a company taking real, sustained market share in performance running, the category Nike built its entire identity around.

Management laid out a multi-year framework targeting low double-digit annual HOKA growth through fiscal 2030, with international sales expected to outpace the overall business. They’re not managing a trend. They’re building a business with a decade-long horizon.

What This Actually Means

Five brands. Five record or near-record reports. All in the last ten days.

The categories these brands are winning in, performance running, trail, lifestyle sportswear, technical footwear, are categories Nike either built or once dominated. The consumers buying On and ASICS and Saucony and Salomon and HOKA are not consumers who stopped caring about athletic footwear. They’re consumers who found something that fit their lives better.

The brands winning right now share something beyond the numbers. They stayed close to the product. They built authentic relationships with their communities before those communities were worth building. They didn't chase hype cycles. And when consumers started looking for something more considered than a retro Swoosh, they were already there.

Nike will figure it out. They have the resources, the history, and in Elliott Hill the right person for the moment. But the market they return to will look different from the one they left.

These brands aren’t waiting for Nike to figure it out. They’re building while the door is open.

Keep building.

-Nick

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I'm Nick Engvall. I've worked in the sneaker industry for over two decades. I built the original Eastbay Blog during my time at Sole Collector, led the first dedicated sneaker team for Complex, led the first UGC and seeding programs for Finish Line, employee #9 at StockX, Sr. Director at Stadium Goods. I host the Sneaker History podcast (600K+ downloads) and write The Sneaker Newsletter. My book Small Luxuries: Sneakers (Motorbooks) releases October 2026. Paid subscribers get the deeper cuts… Thursday From the Vault, Friday exclusives, and the Sunday long read.