Nicolas Mermoud

About

Nicolas Mermoud is a French trail runner, mountain guide, ski engineer, and entrepreneur who is best known as the co-founder of HOKA — the cushioned maximalist footwear brand that transformed trail and ultra running globally in the 2010s. Raised near Chamonix at the heart of French alpinism, he came to ultrarunning through mountain guiding and freeskiing before establishing himself as a competitive elite: he finished third overall at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc and recorded multiple top-ten finishes at the same race. The catalyst for HOKA came at the 2007 UTMB: Mermoud was in the lead through the early stages when the severe descent sections — where conventional trail shoes provided inadequate shock absorption — caused him to drop from first to third. The experience crystallised an idea he had long been developing about cushioning geometry. In 2009 he and Jean-Luc Diard co-founded HOKA ONE ONE, delivering the first 30 pairs personally to trail runners at UTMB, who converted others simply by wearing them. The brand grew through word-of-mouth before being acquired by Deckers Brands in 2013. Mermoud subsequently became Chief Testing Officer for Mirage Sports, but his most enduring legacy is a shoe category now ubiquitous on the start lines of the world's hardest ultras — and a brand that is widely credited with democratising long-distance mountain running across every level of the sport.

Notable Wins

• — UTMB 2007 3rd

Race History