By: Jeremy Neisser
From June through December, I ran a survey through Facebook and with my email list. The goal of the survey was to ask real runners what shoes they prefer to wear when running.
The most popular running shoe brand based on 3863 survey responses is Brooks, who garnered 29% of the nationwide votes and the top running shoe overall is the Brooks Ghost line, who received 10% of the overall submissions.
Below we break down the actual runner responses in the largest statistically significant running shoes survey ever.
Here are, by vote the most popular running shoes.
Top Running Shoes
Asking The Right Questions
My goal was to keep it super simple - ask as few questions as possible but ask the RIGHT questions to get good, statistically significant answers.
What Running Shoe Brand Do You Wear When You Run?
A simple question which allowed survey takers to type in a specific brand or choose from a list.
What Running Shoe Do You Wear When You Run? (Brand and Line of Shoe)
After question one the next question allowed survey takers to answer by writing in the specific shoes that they like to wear.
Once I had the Google Form setup, I posted it to my running Facebook page and emailed folks on my list. After the first week, I had hundreds of survey responses and a bunch of comments.
I decided to spend put some money and advertise it on Facebook to a wide running audience. Here are the final numbers on the actual post which does not include folks who actually submitted the survey.
Here is the actual data from the survey. Taking what was posted in the comments AND the survey to compile this information.
Question #1:
What Running Shoe Brand Do You Wear When You Run?
Running Brand | Total Votes | Percentage of Total Votes |
|---|---|---|
Brooks | 1107 | 29% |
Asics | 687 | 18% |
Nike | 414 | 11% |
Hoka | 388 | 10% |
Saucony | 353 | 9% |
New Balance | 305 | 8% |
Altra | 126 | 3% |
Adidas | 114 | 3% |
Mizuno | 109 | 3% |
Under Armour | 35 | 1% |
Skechers | 35 | 1% |
On | 34 | 1% |
Reebok | 21 | < 1% |
Topo | 20 | < 1% |
Salomon | 20 | < 1% |
Newton | 18 | < 1% |
Merrell | 15 | < 1% |
Vibram | 9 | < 1% |
Cloud | 6 | < 1% |
Atreyu | 6 | < 1% |
361 | 4 | < 1% |
Fila
Puma
Barefoot
Enda
Inov-8
Avia
Champion
Whitin
Luna
Xero
Russell
Northface
LA Gear
Vivo
Zoot
Diadora
Modtlu
Body Glove
Karhu
Airwalk
Torin
Skora
Question #1: TAKEAWAYS:
Brooks | ASICS | NIKE | Hoka | Saucony |
|---|---|---|---|---|
29% Fill Counter | 18% Fill Counter | 11% Fill Counter | 10% Fill Counter | 9% Fill Counter |
1107 Votes | 687 Votes | 414 Votes | 388 Votes | 353 Votes |
Question#2: What Running Shoe Do You Wear When You Run? (Brand and Line of Shoe)
Before I break down the tally for each shoe, there were over 415 different shoes were submitted in the survey.
Running Shoe | Total Votes | Percentage of Total Votes |
|---|---|---|
Brooks Ghost | 420 | 10% |
Brooks Adrenaline | 231 | 6% |
Nike Pegasus | 134 | 3% |
Asics Gel Nimbus | 124 | 3% |
Asics Gel Kayano | 118 | 3% |
Hoka Clifton | 117 | 3% |
Hoka Bondi | 99 | 2% |
Brooks Glycerin | 92 | 2% |
Asics GT 2000 | 66 | 2% |
Brooks Launch | 61 | 2% |
Saucony Triumph | 58 | 1% |
Mizuno Wave Rider
Altra Torin
Asics Gel Cumulus
New Balance 860
Nike React Infinity Run Flyknit
Saucony Ride
Brooks Revel
Brooks Ravenna
Saucony Kinvara
Altra Escalante
New Balance 880
Saucony Guide
Adidas Ultra Boost
New Balance 1080
Hoka Arahi
Asics Gel Venture
Saucony Freedom
Asics Gel Contend
Brooks Levitate
Mizuno Wave Inspire
Saucony Cohesion
Altra Lone Peak
Hoka Rincon
Asics GT 1000
Nike Zoom Fly
Nike Flex Experience
Brooks Beast
Hoka Gaviota
Skechers Go Run
And 350 other shoes under 10 votes
Brooks Ghost & Adrenaline | Nike Pegasus | Asics Nimbus & Kayano | Hoka Clifton & Bondi | Asics GT 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
16% Fill Counter | 3% Fill Counter | 6% Fill Counter | 5% Fill Counter | 2% Fill Counter |
651 Votes | 134 Votes | 242 Votes | 216 Votes | 66 Votes |
Very interesting information - I was quite surprised that Brooks Ghost, Adrenaline, and Launch received 804 votes or almost 20% of all of the votes.
So in the argument - Asics vs Brooks, Brooks wins the argument as the top running shoe.
Hi, Jeremy Here,
I am the the guy behind Train for a 5K. On this site, I share everything that learned along my running journey. The content I create is the running training I wish I had before we started this journey. About Jeremy.
I have run over 250 races including the California International Marathon, Clarksburg Country Run, and various other 5K & 10K races throughout the United States. I am a former Athletics department employee at University of the Pacific and Shoe Consultant with Dicks Sporting Goods