- HOKA tapped St. Louis rapper Smino to front its new campaign for the reissued Speedgoat 2, built around footage of him riding dirt bikes through the desert.
- The rollout includes a Smino x HOKA listening party in Los Angeles previewing new music.
- The Speedgoat 2's "Neon Yuzu/Bay Leaf" colorway drops today, July 10, 2026, for $160.
- It's HOKA's second musician-fronted shoe campaign of the year, following February's Gucci Mane push for the Bondi 7.
HOKA has enlisted Smino to front its newest Speedgoat 2 campaign, pulling the once-niche trail shoe further into streetwear territory.
The digital and social push centers on Smino riding dirt bikes through the desert, paired with a Los Angeles listening party where he’s previewing new music alongside the shoe’s “Neon Yuzu/Bay Leaf” colorway, which launched for $160.
HOKA’s director of design and lifestyle, Chris Hui, said Smino’s genre-defying creativity mirrors the Speedgoat 2’s own path from technical trail runner to design-world favorite since its 2017 debut.
This isn’t HOKA’s first trip to hip-hop for a shoe launch. In February, the brand tapped Gucci Mane and Foot Locker for the Bondi 7’s “Right Show, Wrong Gucci” campaign, leaning on Gucci’s real-life NBA referee lookalike for laughs. HOKA has also worked with actor Jared Padalecki, triathlete Craig Alexander and track athlete Adelle Tracey.
Smino teamed with St. Louis CITY SC last October on a merch line raising funds for tornado relief. He’s managed by Henny Yegezu of Equative Thinking (EQT), who also reps Wale, Smino’s current co-headliner on “Everything Is A Lot… The Tour,” which kicked off in May.
The move fits a broader pattern of streetwear brands leaning on musicians for authenticity, from Reuben Vincent’s new Fall 2026 campaign with APB to Rosé’s PUMA H-Street rollout, each betting that cultural credibility sells better than a traditional athlete endorsement.
Takeaways
This campaign continues HOKA’s pivot from performance-running staple to streetwear mainstay, using musicians rather than pro athletes to make the case.
Pairing a boundary-pushing rapper with a shoe born on the trail signals HOKA is chasing the lifestyle crossover Nike and adidas have long owned. It’s also a low-cost nostalgia play; reviving a nearly decade-old silhouette costs little in R&D but taps straight into sneakerhead demand for archive drops.
Will HOKA’s hip-hop pivot win over younger buyers without alienating its core trail-running base? Could the listening-party format signal more music-first activations from performance brands? Could Smino become a recurring HOKA face, the way Gucci Mane’s Bondi 7 spot grew into a bigger relationship?
