When Hoka first released the Stinson Evo in 2012, running looked โย and certainly felt โ a little different.
Hoka, then called Hoka One One, was only a few years old at the time and still trying to break into the US market. Shoes that mimicked running barefoot were all the rage. And here came a little-known brand from the French Alps preaching maximalist cushioning to the masses.
Now, the Stinson Evo is back. And Hoka is a billion-dollar business, with accolades on both the road and trail. Jim Walmsley broke the 50-mile world record in 2019 wearing a pair of Hokas, and he recently became the first American to win the prestigious UTMB in a prototype of the upcoming Tecton X3.
Hoka Stinson Evo OG
High on cushion, low on weight
The Stinson Evo wasn’t the first or only shoe to catapult Hoka to the top of the shoe chain. But it had all the hallmarks of what we’ve come to expect of a typical Hoka shoe: massive amounts of foam and a reasonable heel-toe differential. Perhaps most notably, it weighed less than 11 ounces, giving it one of the best cushion-to-weight ratios on store shelves.