HOKA RAN MARATHON WEEK FROM BROOKLYN TO CENTRAL PARK

Hoka spent the week before the NYC Marathon building toward one Sunday: November 1, when the 50th anniversary edition of the five borough course starts at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island and finishes near Tavern on the Green in Central Park. The brand calls its programming Let's Fly NYC, and by race eve it had put a pop up, a group run, a 5K and an elite signing into the city. The race itself has one change this year, a minor Bronx adjustment that New York Road Runners made to ease the course's impact on the borough, the first course change in 15 years.

Hoka is not the race's title name; that belongs to TCS. What Hoka owns is the week around it.

96 N 5th Street, Friday and Saturday

Hoka opened marathon week on October 25, a week before the start, with an open invitation to racers, spectators and anyone in the city for the energy. The HOKA Fly Station ran Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31 at 96 N 5th Street in Brooklyn, offering race day shoes, food before the marathon and music, according to the brand's announcement. An event listing adds a tote bag customization station and sets from local DJs.

The address sits in Williamsburg, a street away from the 4,148 square foot storefront Hoka signed at 91 N. Sixth Street, per Empire State Realty Trust's lease announcement in December 2025. Coverage of that lease did not give an opening date, so the Fly Station reads as a preview of how Hoka intends to use the neighborhood. Race eve imagery was credited to photographer wessalonen.

13:31 in Central Park

Habtom Samuel won Saturday's Central Park 5K in 13:31 in his first race as a HOKA Elite athlete, and Ednah Kurgat finished third in 15:42 in a Hoka debut of their own. Hoka counted two debuts and two podium finishes before the marathon had started, and framed the morning as the opening event of race weekend in Central Park, the same park where the marathon ends 24 hours later. The 5K gave the brand two named athletes with finishing times before the main event, which is the kind of concrete result a campaign built on a hashtag does not usually have on its first Saturday.

Samuel arrives with a résumé the brand spelled out in full: five NCAA titles, a 59:01 half marathon debut and the title of most decorated athlete in New Mexico history. Hoka described his path as NIL to elite, meaning a college athlete from the name, image and likeness era now runs under a professional shoe contract. The brand announced his signing on Friday, October 30, the day before he raced.

Run the City, Then a Local's Route

On Thursday, October 29, Fleet Feet NYC, Hoka and other partners hosted Run the City, presented by HOKA, a free evening run at 6:30 p.m. open to anyone. The same day Hoka published a route preview from Umi Akiyoshi, a born and raised New Yorker, who walked through Greenpoint, the Pulaski Bridge, Long Island City, the Queensboro Bridge and Central Park.

Those are the stretches where the marathon moves from Brooklyn into Queens and then Manhattan, so Hoka framed the course by its bridges rather than its mile markers. Of those stops, the Pulaski Bridge is the one runners cross near the halfway point.

Chamonix, Chicago, New York in 65 Days

Hoka's autumn has been a race calendar. UTMB started in Chamonix on August 28 with Hoka as its title sponsor, upgraded from footwear and apparel partner through 2028, over a 174 kilometer course with a 46 hour, 45 minute limit. On October 11 the brand put its Let's Fly banner on Chicago Marathon day for runners who took on 26.2 miles in the Windy City. New York is the third stop in 65 days.

The shoe on the product side is the Cielo X1 3.0, which Running Warehouse describes as Hoka's fastest marathon super shoe, priced at $274.95. Nothing published ties a specific model to a specific NYC runner, so the shoe question stays open until the race results arrive. Hoka's lifestyle push has moved on a separate track: the Clifton UTL swapped trail use for Atmos exclusivity in September, and the Skyward X 2 cut 4mm of stack in May.

Hellen Obiri and Benson Kipruto Defend Sunday

Defending champions Hellen Obiri and Benson Kipruto head the professional field New York Road Runners announced in August, with Sifan Hassan returning from an Achilles injury and Conner Mantz leading the Americans. The race starts Sunday, November 1 on Staten Island.