HOKA shoes uses a Māori name. Why don't they say so?

HOKA is a French American sneaker brand seen on the feet of celebrities such as Britney Spears and Gwyneth Paltrow, and exploding in global popularity.

The name HOKA is a Māori word meaning "to fly," but you're unlikely to know that. The company, which took in close to $3 billion in sales last year, does not attribute the name to Māori on its website or in a nine-minute company origin video. The brand's logo, a bird silhouette, and its tagline - "fly human fly" - alludes to the Māori meaning of its name. A short video on HOKA's 'About' page - as well as many social media influences promoting its products - pronounce the name wrong, saying the word 'hoe-kah' instead of 'hoar-kah'.

HOKA was started by two French shoe designers and runners in 2009 with the extended name of HOKA One One, meaning to "fly over the earth" in Māori. Its 2010 website's About page attributes the name to the "ancient Māori language," according to internet archive website Wayback Machine. That attribution disappeared from the company's website's About page by 2011. Searches of its website in 2012, 2013 and 2019 show that Māori are not mentioned on the company's About pages, nor on its current website.

HOKA attributed its name to Māori once on its Facebook page in 2019, when musician and then-HOKA ambassador Tiki Taane shot a video telling fans how to pronounce the name correctly. It's unclear why the company did not adopt the correct pronunciation outlined by Taane in its current marketing videos.

The US-based Decker Brands, which also owns Ugg Australia, acquired HOKA in 2013. The company dropped "One One" in 2021, according to numerous news articles. At the time, many fans commented on the confusion over how to pronounce the company name with many adopting "hoe-kah wun wun".

HOKA has since become a golden goose for Decker thanks to the brand crossing over from a niche running shoe to a lifestyle product. HOKA opened a store in Auckland's new outlet mall Manawa Bay last year and the brand is stocked in Torpedo 7, Kathmandu and Platypus, among other New Zealand stores.

HOKA and Decker Brands did not respond to emails, a voice message and messages on social media asking why the company stopped attributing its name to Māori on its website, why it has not adopted the te reo pronunciation of the name and whether the company consulted with Māori on the name when the company was founded. RNZ also reached out to HOKA's New Zealand distributor, the Accent Group, but the company did not reply.

Two shoe styles - the Arahi and the Hopara - also carry Māori names and it is unclear if Māori were consulted before those words were chosen. HOKA did not use macrons in its branding for hōpara or ārahi.

Taane, the Māori musician who did the 2019 Facebook video to help HOKA pronounce its name correctly, told RNZ that he was approached by a New Zealand brand representative after he started posting on social media about running in the brand's shoes.

"We talked about how the brand's pronunciation needed to improve and how my involvement through my video will hopefully encourage that, although I'm unaware if they contacted anyone else to make a similar video or take on that challenge," Taane said in a statement to RNZ, adding he received free products as payment.

"Back then I was very trusting when it came to named brands. Things are very different for me today when a Maaori-named brand approaches me for brand association," he said.

Like others RNZ spoke to, Lynell Tuffery Huria, a Māori patent attorney, had heard of the shoe brand and wondered about its name. However, until RNZ called her for an interview she was in the dark about the name's Māori origins.

"If you're going to use a Māori word, you need to understand why you're using that word, and if you're not willing to align with Māori values and how you use that word, and why you use that word, then you shouldn't use that word," says Huria. "Just use the English word and that is fine.

"Te reo Māori is a taonga [treasure]...We need to start respecting it as that," she added.

When the company was founded in 2009, Huria said that consulting Māori "probably was not even something that crossed [the French founders] minds". However, any tolerance for companies profiting from using Māori words and designs has since dissolved.

Dr Karaitiana Taiuru, a Māori intellectual property expert, said the company should at least pronounce the name correctly.

"That's just straight-out offensive; they're using the Māori language and can't pronounce it? That doesn't help the language become normalised or keep it living. It does the opposite."

Another te reo Māori mistake the company appears to have made is the use of "Arahi" for one of its shoe styles, according to Taiuru. The meaning of ārahi is "to lead" and it can be tapu (sacred) or noa (common) word in Māori. The New Zealand Trademarks guide refers to this as the Tapu/Noa test where something that is common like a shoe should not be married with something sacred such as the word "ārahi."

"I would argue that wearing shoes with a tapu name is a breach of tapu, or very offensive," Taiuru wrote in a follow-up email to RNZ.

This has been an issue in the past when alcohol brands have associated an alcoholic beverage (noa) with a sacred te reo Māori word.

He said that the company's use of te reo Māori is not illegal and everyday use of the language is encouraged to keep it alive. However, companies that are not Māori-owned should go through a process to use Māori words, including considering how the company might give back to Māori.

HOKA applied for a New Zealand trademark of HOKA in 2016 through several applications to the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand. All but one went through the Māori advisory committee, which has limited power to veto an application that contains Māori words or design only if it is deemed offensive to Māori.

The trademark was approved that year.

The Trade Marks Act does not provide the committee with the ability to deny an application because the company did not engage a Māori cultural consultant, if the company does not attribute the mark to the Māori language, or the applicant subsequently mispronounces the word.

"This process demonstrates that the Committee's powers are still limited and the Committee on its own is unable to stop all forms of appropriation of kupu [word] Māori by international companies, both domestically and internationally," Huria said.

Aria Clapperton is an ultramarathon runner and a social media influencer under the TikTok name Run Like the Clappers. She is also a HOKA fan, owning about 20 pairs. Some were given to her by Allsports, an early distributor of the shoes in New Zealand.

She initially thought it was a Māori-owned company, but soon realised it did not communicate any connection to Māori.

"The fact that it wasn't Māori-owned or New Zealand-owned didn't affect my appreciation for the product, but as a wahine Māori, it does obviously make me wonder whether proper consultation took place back at the naming.

"I think that using any indigenous language or culture and branding, without consulting the community it represents does feel like cultural appropriation, particularly for commercial gain."

Clapperton said HOKA's use was less offensive than an alcohol brand incorporating Māori language or design because it was a shoe brand promoting fitness. However, that did not excuse their approach, she said.

"It's a strange place to be in because it is a brand that promotes a healthy lifestyle, but without actually any reference or effort to appreciate the language or culture that they're drawing from and benefiting from."

The company can make amends by disclosing any engagement with Māori or engaging Māori now if they have not done so in the past, said Nathan Riki, a Māori cultural consultant. The company should also consider benefit sharing with Māori, which could look like contributing to the revitalisation of te reo Māori or committing to improving Māori health outcomes.

"It's got to be a two-way street in terms of 'what we are taking or what Māori are giving to us, but actually what can we give back to Māori?' So there's a lot of things that an organisation like HOKA could do to actually give back to Māori in this country."