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Sinclaire Johnson Was Happy With Nike, But HOKA Offered A Life-Changing Bag
- Cory Mull
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
The 27-year-old middle distance runner, the American record-holder in the mile and 2022 champion over 1500 meters, is betting on herself after signing with HOKA...
Written by Cory Mull
The thing is, Sinclaire Johnson wasn’t unhappy with Nike. In fact, she wasn’t even planning on moving on from her sponsor of about six years. But sometimes in this life, money talks.
“There was a big financial difference in my Nike and HOKA contracts,” Johnson told The Stride Report recently.
We can only begin to imagine the type of price point Johnson commanded from HOKA (track and field contracts are not public information), which pulled the American record-holder in the mile and the 2022 U.S.A. champion over 1500 meters away from Nike on January 22nd in a life-changing move.
Johnson told TSR that Nike was intending to re-sign her, and that there were no contract reductions coming her way in that regard.
But Johnson, a one-time NCAA champion over 1500 meters with Oklahoma State before she turned pro in 2019, did tell us what HOKA placed in front of her was an offer that few in this sport ever receive. They first approached her agent in September.
“When it comes down to it, there was a financial difference that I may not be offered ever again in my career,” she said. “That definitely made me think about the HOKA thing a bit more.”
The move comes at a time in Johnson’s career where every decision she makes will be critical toward her next steps on the track. At the age of 27, now coached by her fiancé Craig Nowak in their long-term home of Portland, Oregon, she is heading toward the peak of her powers, running faster (and healthier) than she’s ever been.
We caught up with Johnson during a short two-month stint of warm weather training in Phoenix, Arizona after her first two competitions at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix and the Millrose Games.
“Being not in a formal group has allowed us that flexibility,” said Johnson, a Florida native near Orlando. She turns 28 in April.
The newest HOKA signee was the U.S.A. runner-up in the women’s 1500 meters last year and eventually reached the World Championship finals in Tokyo. That was her third Team USA appearance since 2022. Johnson nearly equaled her career-best 3:56.73 at the distance at the Prefontaine Classic (3:56.93) and set an outdoor road mile American record in Hawaii this past December with a mark of 4:21.66.
However, most importantly, she’s remained healthy after years of bone injuries which have kept her off the track at times.
All that said, Johnson does not believe that she has hit her ceiling yet.
“I feel like I have more to accomplish,” she said.
And clearly, HOKA thinks so, too.
Why Sinclaire Johnson Made the Move to HOKA
This decision is an incredibly big one, because it moves Johnson away from the professional training stimulus of Nike Union Athletics under Coach Pete Julian, where she has been since her split from the Bowerman Track Club, to a singularly-focused model.
Her training, her way.
In essence, it’s a bet on herself, and on HOKA, which is known more so for its consumer retail products than its high-performance middle distance or sprint spikes. But perhaps that’s an area where massive change is coming.
Johnson said she’s already been involved in talks with HOKA’s footwear team.
“We are making tweaks to their current model that I am hoping – just to get a couple different versions of their current model is the first step there,” she said. “In terms of building a spike out, we haven’t gotten to that point just yet.”
Johnson said she wouldn’t have signed with the retailer (a performance apparel brand owned by Decker Brands), which experienced a strong fiscal year in 2025 with $2.23 billion in sales (a 23.6% increase year-over-year), if not for its vision for the future. She had just about two weeks to test out its products before she made a final decision on her move to HOKA.
In some ways, as she’s said in past interviews, there was an inherent risk in changing from performance products that have worked for her previously.
HOKA’s track record sponsoring professional athletes largely centers around its long distance group in Flagstaff (NAZ Elite). It has not yet built a strong sprints corps and is only starting to develop a stronger presence in the middle-distances -- HOKA pro Krissy Gear, however, won a national title in the 3000-meter steeplechase in 2023 and has made one U.S.A. team.
But after a moment of reflection, Johnson backtracked on that thought.
“I think sometimes when you do change your situation, you don’t really know how you will respond to that,” she said. “The risk in the initial part of that is, will I like their footwear?”
Finding Her Groove (So Far)
After more than a month in HOKA products, Johnson feels more confident in her position. “The footwear, the innovation, it’s come up on all levels across companies. As I ran more in their shoes and got more comfortable and figured out which ones I liked, that eased the concern.”
What matters most, she says, is the ability to tailor her training to her needs. Nowak, who met Johnson at Oklahoma State in the late 2010s and ran 3:39 (1500) in 2017, is her primary coach and even her training partner at times.
“I got to a point in my career in 2024 where I wanted–and this is in the nicest way possible–nothing to do with the team,” Johnson said of her tenure at Union Athletics, which moved to Boulder, Colorado in 2025.
However, Johnson stayed back in Portland. “I think I just got really burned by fitting into what everyone else was kind of doing, at the wrong time."
“I felt like there was the individuality aspect that I needed, because it created a lot of injuries for myself when the training wasn’t tailored towards me. I lost a lot of that in the training group, so I really wanted to get as far away from that as possible.”
What’s next for Johnson remains to be seen, but she says she’s not close to her apex -- and recent evidence suggests that she may be right. Recent records and fast times aside, there’s much to be desired. She's coming off of a career-best over 3000 meters (indoors) at the JDL Sound Running Invite in a time of 8:35.48.
She vows to continue putting herself in high-stress races, “handling pressure, handling the crowd,” she said, “and handling the expectation of major meets.”
What’s Next For Sinclaire Johnson
The Ultimate Championships, a new meet on the World Athletics calendar, arrives in 2026.
A total of $10 million of prize money is confirmed for the meet. Johnson, the sixth-fastest woman in United States history at 1500 meters, did confirm that she has an incentive built into her new contract if she qualifies and earns a top performance.
“Global medals,” she said “I hope to do that in Beijing in 2027 and definitely be on the Olympic team and vie for a medal in 2028. There are always opportunities, whether it’s indoor or outdoor championships, to get that elusive medal. As a track and field athlete, I feel like that’s a stamp of accomplishment."
“To be able to perform and beat out the rest of the field and earn a top three spot at a major championship, it’s an incredibly hard thing to do,” she said. “That’s something I don’t have under my belt and I would love to vie for that.”