A little bit more room is going a long way in running shoes.
Across the sector, more accommodating toe boxes and forefoots are popping up in new releases, and brands are doing their best to make sure the changes get noticed.
For Hoka, it already featured greater toe volume on trail runners, particularly styles catering to ultra distances in which feet are more likely to swell. Feedback from athletes and consumers indicated even more interest in expanding the area around the front of the foot, so tweaks have been made to several road shoes models updated this year, including Hoka’s newest Clifton and Mach styles.
Other brands have made similar changes, including to both of Nike’s Pegasuses that have launched this year and Brooks’ Ghost Max. New Balance also created the brand-new Ellipse franchise with a wider than-average toe box as one of its selling points.
“Consumers are more savvy,” explained Rebekah Broe, Hoka senior director of product, performance footwear. “We’ve also seen brands that have stepped in and positioned themselves around a very declarative perspective on fit. There’s more awareness in the consumer’s mind on how important fit is in their relationship with the footwear.”
Improving that relationship won’t come through a one-size-fits-all approach, though — and not just because of the wide variety of foot shapes. The intended use of a shoe model also has to be considered, as the needs for daily training differ from speed work or races. But there are multiple upsides to making these adjustments. Beyond the benefits for an individual runner, spaciousness can also make a shoe more approachable for a wider variety of foot shapes.
There are even non-runners to consider, as a 2025 Circana report found that only 49 percent of running shoe consumers are actually participating in the sport.
Matt Powell, senior adviser at BCE Consulting, said expanding toe boxes will speak to the other 51 percent seeking comfort, especially older demographics. “I’m not saying everybody’s going to be wearing wide-toe-box shoes next year,” he added, “but for a certain consumer, this is an ideal shoe.”
One of Hoka’s updates was giving a wider berth to the Clifton 11, a shoe intended for daily training, which has a larger consumer base and prioritizes comfort. And for the smaller crowd that wants to turn up the pace, the Mach 7 is more snug but still more accommodating than its direct predecessor, so as to not fully give up the sense of control its shape delivers. Foot swelling is also more likely to occur in the types of runs the Mach 7 is built for, so its jacquard mesh upper can expand in accordance.
“We’re really careful about engineering that fit and working closely with our partners in development and engineering to make sure that anything we’re doing around fit is still complementary to the experience we’re trying to provide,” Broe said.
Over at Nike, now a few years into its running relaunch, it has built multiple styles in the Pegasus franchise around a new last called MR10 2.0. In addition to creating more room around the toes, the last also allows for more cushioning to fit underneath the same region.
“Wanting to have the most accommodating fit possible is important, and it starts with our last,” said Bret Schoolmeester, Nike Running design lead. “We’ve gone on a long journey over the last few years to make sure we’re obsessing over our lasts, and we’re now in a really good place where our racing product — and most notably our Vomero line — are scoring very, very well in blind comfort studies. We do believe the forefoot shape plays a big role in that.”
Even prior to adopting the new last, Schoolmeester said Nike’s reputation for narrow fits has been outdated for some time. To fully shed that perception, it needs to continue delivering the right product while tailoring the messaging to match.
Examples to follow on the marketing front can be found in Altra and Topo, both of which have made spacious toe boxes brand signatures. A “roomy toe box” is the first feature Topo calls out on the website page spelling out what makes the brand different. And Altra has even branded its fits as Footshape, which expand in order through the label’s Racing Footshape, Standard Footshape and Original Footshape.
Toe shapes may seem granular and less exciting than new foams and plates, but the effect they have on a runner’s experience indicates the importance of every single detail as brands vie for attention in an increasingly crowded and competitive running field