The HOKA Mach X 3 is Fast, But Comes With an Asterisk or Two

The answer to the question of “what makes a HOKA running shoe unique” used to be a simple one. It’s a shoe with a maximum amount of cushioning, a shockingly light weight for said cushioning, and plenty of platform stability to go with it. And that formula, for the most part, has stuck around as the brand has grown to sell nearly $571 million last quarter — up almost 35% over 2024.

I say for the most part as, well, HOKA makes some shoes that are decidedly unlike their trademark brand motif. There are shoes like the Torrent, which trades out typical HOKA downhill running cushioning for a more traditional trail running platform. There’s a Mary Jane version of the Bondi. And there’s the whole track and field collection.

And then there’s HOKA’s take on plated shoes. Many of HOKA’s plated shoes have come up firmly on the traditional side of HOKA footwear. The Rocket series, for instance, comes across as soft and stable. The revised Cielo X1 also heads down that rabbit hole. And we would be remiss to not mention the illegal for competition Skyward X, which has all the cushioning your heart could ever desire.

So it’s in that vein that along comes the HOKA Mach X 3. You would think that, by sharing the name with the standard Mach series, that many of its characteristics would come along for the ride. You’d be half right. And ultimately, that means you’d be half wrong, too.

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