2016 Ironman Triathlon World Championships Running Shoe Count
The men's and women's winners at Kona ran in ASICS, and several other brands also nabbed top finishes.
Ever wonder what shoes triathletes wear when they’re running?
On Saturday in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Germany’s Jan Frodeno and Daniela Ryf repeated their men’s and women’s titles respectively at the 2016 Ironman World Championship, and they were again each wearing ASICS running shoes. Frodeno, who wore a pair of red and white custom-built shoes similar to the ASICS Super J33-2 stability-oriented racing flats, ran a 2:45:34 marathon split (7 minutes faster than last year) and finished the 140.6-mile triathlon course in 8:06:30. Ryf wore a pair of custom blue and white pair of shoes with characteristics pulled from the ASICS DS-Trainer 20 stability trainer and ASICS DS Racer 11 models. She ran a 2:56:51 marathon (10 minutes faster than last year) and finished in a new women’s Kona course record of 8:46:46.
But it’s also interesting to note that the top men’s running split was turned in by Patrick Lange of Germany, who ran a new Ironman record marathon split of 2:39:45 wearing a pair of Newton Distance Elite shoes on his way to placing third in his Kona debut in 8:11:14.
What shoes did other triathletes wear at the 2016 Ironman World Championships? Here’s the brand breakdown, as sorted by Dave Jewell for Lava Magazine.
This year, the top brand in the race was ASICS, which had 17 percent of the shoes in the race. But Hoka One One was close behind at 16 percent, supplanting Saucony (13 percent), which had been the No. 2 brand in Kona for the previous four years.
2016 Ironman World Championships Shoe Count
| Brand | Men | Women | Total |
| 1. ASICS | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| 2. Hoka One One | 16% | 16% | 16% |
| 3. Saucony | 12% | 14% | 13% |
| 4. Brooks | 8% | 9% | 8% |
| 5. New Balance | 8% | 7% | 8% |
| 6. Newton | 8% | 7% | 8% |
| 7. Adidas | 8% | 6% | 7% |
| 8. Nike | 6% | 7% | 6% |
| 9. Mizuno | 5% | 5% | 5% |
RELATED: 2015 Ironman Triathlon World Championships Running Shoe Count
RELATED: 2014 Ironman Triathlon World Championships Running Shoe Count
Jewell took more insights from his shoe count, which he has done for several years both in Kona and at the Boston Marathon. He broke down brand percentages among age groupers and also offered thoughts about the most popular lightweight shoes.
RELATED: How New Balance Developed A Shoe For Sebastian Kienle