These days, a pair of Hoka shoes is never far from a major trail race podium, and this year's Western States was no different.
While the first placed runners sported the yet-to-be-released Nike Ultrafly 2 (Caleb Olson) and the revered Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra (Abby Hall), Fuzhao Xiang took second place in the women's race, sporting a Hoka prototype.
The Chinese runner was back for another shot at the legendary California race over the weekend after taking second place last year. Her time of 16:47:09 was slower than her 2024 performance, but placed her once again on the podium, only 10 minutes behind Hall as runner-up and sixth fastest woman ever at the race.
That achievement also made Xiang the leader of Hoka's team at the 100-mile race, and inquiring minds wanted to know what shoes she was wearing. Would it be the Hoka Tecton X 3s that have seen Jim Walmsley win the Western States and Vincent Bouillard take the UTMB title in 2024?
Hoka, the official sponsor of WSER, has confirmed to Advnture that Xiang wore the brand's yet-to-be released Rocket X Trail, a shoe designed specifically for the demands of gravel racing.
“Fuzhao brought her A-game to the most legendary American trail race, and we couldn’t be prouder to see her hitting these heights at this point in the season. Western States has long been a proving ground, and it’s really meaningful to see Hoka on the podium again," says Mike McManus, Director of NA Sports Marketing.
What we know so far about the Hoka Rocket Trail
Previous iterations of the Rocket series, such as the Rocket X 2 have been built for road running, and this will be the first Rocket designed for the trails.
The inclusion of the X in the name denotes it has a carbon plate, and the brand tells us the shoe is ultralight and features a new A-TPU superfoam and "targeted traction" for speed over a variety of distances.
There's no mention of the model on Hoka's website yet, but a runner posted in a Reddit thread devoted to running shoes claims to have a few more details:
"I ran in a prototype last winter, it was light and quite responsive! It has a fairly high stack height and the midsole is on the firmer side. I really liked running in it, although with the 3 mm lugs and the higher stack height you're not going to be running with them in more technical terrain."
The Hoka Rocket X Trail will be available in limited quantities in the fall of 2025. If you can't wait, the Hoka Mafate X is out now for long-haul efforts.
- The best Hoka trail running shoes for different types of terrain
- The best trail running shoes: get a grip on the trickiest terrain
