Running Shoes,
according to AI
Every week we ask ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini the questions real UK consumers ask about running shoes — and record exactly which brands they put forward. Right now, Asics owns the conversation.
0 AI answers this run · 0 brands named · measured, never estimated
Asics is the default answer.
Named in 47% of running shoes answers, typically in position 2.4. Hoka follows at 33%, Nike at 33%.
Every brand AI names, ranked.
Visibility is the share of answers naming the brand; citation share is its slice of all brand-owned pages cited; read→cited is how often its pages convert a read into a citation.
| # | Brand | Visibility | Avg. position | Citation share | Read→cited |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asics | 47% | 2.4 | 35% | 14% |
| 2 | Hoka | 33% | 2.8 | 3% | 14% |
| 3 | Nike | 33% | 2.9 | 0% | — |
| 4 | Brooks | 28% | 2.5 | 16% | 21% |
| 5 | New Balance | 28% | 2.6 | 11% | 100% |
| 6 | Saucony | 20% | 2.7 | 8% | 25% |
| 7 | Adidas | 18% | 2.9 | 5% | 25% |
| 8 | Puma | 8% | 2.0 | 0% | — |
| 9 | Salomon | 7% | 1.8 | 5% | 15% |
| 10 | Inov-8 | 7% | 2.0 | 0% | 0% |
| 11 | Altra | 7% | 2.8 | 0% | — |
| 12 | Topo Athletic | 5% | 3.3 | 0% | — |
| 13 | La Sportiva | 3% | 3.0 | 0% | — |
| 14 | Scarpa | 3% | 5.5 | 0% | — |
| 15 | Merrell | 2% | 1.0 | 0% | — |
The referees of running shoes.
The independent sources AI models cite when answering running shoes questions — the places a brand needs to be seen, reviewed and ranked.
Saucony converts reads into citations. Inov-8 doesn't.
When Claude or ChatGPT opens a brand's own pages while answering, does the page make the cited-sources list? Saucony converts 25% of reads; Inov-8 just 0%. That gap is a content problem, not a visibility problem.
Full data table
| # | Brand | Visibility | Avg. position | Citation share | Read→cited |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asics | 47% | 2.4 | 35% | 14% |
| 2 | Hoka | 33% | 2.8 | 3% | 14% |
| 3 | Nike | 33% | 2.9 | 0% | — |
| 4 | Brooks | 28% | 2.5 | 16% | 21% |
| 5 | New Balance | 28% | 2.6 | 11% | 100% |
| 6 | Saucony | 20% | 2.7 | 8% | 25% |
| 7 | Adidas | 18% | 2.9 | 5% | 25% |
| 8 | Puma | 8% | 2.0 | 0% | — |
| 9 | Salomon | 7% | 1.8 | 5% | 15% |
| 10 | Inov-8 | 7% | 2.0 | 0% | 0% |
| 11 | Altra | 7% | 2.8 | 0% | — |
| 12 | Topo Athletic | 5% | 3.3 | 0% | — |
| 13 | La Sportiva | 3% | 3.0 | 0% | — |
| 14 | Scarpa | 3% | 5.5 | 0% | — |
| 15 | Merrell | 2% | 1.0 | 0% | — |
The models do not agree on who leads.
Ask about running shoes and the brand you are shown depends on the assistant: Claude → Hoka, Gemini → Asics, ChatGPT → Asics. Their top-five lists share just 43% of names.
Brands whose visibility swings most between models — the bar per model, widest gap on the right.
The data behind this chart
| Brand | Claude | Gemini | ChatGPT | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asics | 30% | 70% | 40% | 40pp |
| Nike | 20% | 55% | 25% | 35pp |
| Adidas | 5% | 40% | 10% | 35pp |
| Puma | 20% | 5% | 0% | 20pp |
| Brooks | 15% | 35% | 35% | 20pp |
| Inov-8 | 0% | 20% | 0% | 20pp |
| Altra | 5% | 15% | 0% | 15pp |
| Topo Athletic | 0% | 15% | 0% | 15pp |
| Hoka | 30% | 40% | 30% | 10pp |
| New Balance | 25% | 35% | 25% | 10pp |
Nineteen more categories.
Method: 20 unbranded consumer prompts per category, spread across the buying journey, run weekly against ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Read→cited uses Claude and ChatGPT only (Gemini does not separate the two). Correlational observations of model behaviour at the time of the run. Data from the run completed Mon, 31 Aug 2026 10:18:16 GMT.