At the 2015 accenture Ironman 70.3 California at Oceanside, David Jewell of ShoeRanger.com did an extensive running shoe count and shared it along with some of his thoughts with slowtwitch.

The race took place on Saturday, March 28, 2015 and it was estimated by Jewell on that day that 1570 men and 580 finished this popular North American season opening event and he based his percentages based on these numbers.

The Numbers

Men
Brand share percentage

Asics 15.7%
Hoka 13.2%
Newton 12.4%
Saucony 12.0%
Brooks 9.6%
New Balance 6.2%
Nike 6.0%
Zoot 5.3%
Mizuno 4.2%
Altra 2.2%
On Running 2.2%
Pearl Izumi 1.8%

The first 200 or so athletes were an interesting mix of Hoka and Racing Flats. Very little in between those two. In other words not many lightweight trainers (Hoka excluded) or regular training shoes. After the 200 the shoes were a full mixture of all types of running shoes. Yes there was even a barefoot runner, one in sandals and one in Vibram 5 Fingers.

Asics – No dominant shoe for Asics. They are a total brand covering every foot type and it shows in their count. One noted exception for this crowd is there was no 33 M (oversized).
Hoka – The Clifton was the big shoe on the men’s side of things. That said there were also a great deal of athletes in the Stinson Tarmac.
Newton – The shoe sponsor of Ironman. The #1 shoe for them is the Distance Elite where the #2 is surprising because it was the Energy.

Other Notables: Saucony is a two shoe brand right now Kinvara and Triumph ISO.
Zoot – Virtually all were in the Solana or Ali’i 14 which share the same midsole.
New Balance – Either a racing flat or Fresh Foam 980. There were other brands in the count but all fell below 1% – Montrail, Puma, Scott, Salming, Sketchers, Kswiss, Vibram


Women
Brand share percentage

Saucony 22.4%
Brooks 14.9%
Asics 13.4%
Zoot 13.4%
Hoka 10.5%
Nike 8.9%
adidas 5.9%
Mizuno 5.9%

As you can see right from the start a more condensed brand list. It’s not just brands but also condensed shoe list as well.

Saucony – Kinvara
Brooks – Glycerin and Ghost
Asics – GT 2000 3 and Gel Nimbus
Zoot – Solana and Ali’i
Hoka – Huaka and Clifton
There were other brands in the mix but all in 1-2 shoes each or in the case of Newton less than 1%.


Thoughts:

1. Triathletes support the brands who support their sport
2. Triathletes have fully accepted flat bottom construction
3. As a percentage triathletes wear more racing flats than runners at the same run distance. Maybe the percent of those “racing” the event is also larger
4. Female triathletes and female runners are similar in that they know what they want and they stick to it.
5. Women drive the running shoe business. Here in this race they were 27% which gives a few male dominated brands some life. But in running events where women can reach 60% of the field their sticking to what they know drives what brands have big market share. The #1 Brand at running events is Asics and women are driving that status.
6. Finally you know you are looking at too many shoes when you go out for an easy trail run and you start counting the running shoes on the trail based purely on their tread pattern.