Sports brand HOKA bets on zest for running

With the first brand experience center opened in downtown Shanghai in early May, international performance-driven sports brand HOKA aims to better explore the market potential in China by leveraging opportunities to do "something bolder, bigger, more experience-led, and something to surprise and delight Chinese consumers", said the company's top executives.

Their comments came during an interview on May 7, when HOKA opened a 1,600-square-meter three-storey experience center in Shanghai, the first of its kind that the brand has opened in the world.

"The size and scale of the center is not going to be something we will match in every market. So in three or four key cities around the world we see ourselves doing something similar, but not any more than that," said Marco Ellerker, president for global marketplace at Deckers Brands, which acquired HOKA in 2012.