The Athletic Footwear industry is booming in the US, with the top 15 sports shoe brands dominating the US market. This astonishing growth can be, in part, attributed to the wave of health-consciousness sweeping through the population. Fitness-and-health-minded customers, people popularizing athleisure as a style, gym-goers, and people who use sportswear during mild fitness routines are looking for the most functional, comfortable, and popular athletic footwear to lace up. Incorporated on September 8, 1969, this American multinational corporation has long been dominating the athletic footwear market in the US. It’s also one of the best sports shoes brands in the world. The sportswear giant with its “Just Do It” slogan has captured a huge share of the US market and is a leading footwear brand around the world for products that include athletic apparel, footwear, equipment, and accessories. Lately, Nike has been struggling to gain a strong footing on its home turf, where shoppers are flooded with options from rivals Under Armour and Adidas.

However, the company has loads of success overseas in countries like China, which continues to boost its business. Although, Adidas is in a neck-and-neck race with Nike in the US and everywhere else, the latter is still leading the global market and is holding onto its number one spot strongly. Founded in 1898, Saucony is an American brand based in Lexington, Massachusetts that manufactures apparel and footwear for men and women. The company offers casual, trail running, racing, and walking shoes through its online portal. On April 3, 2018, Saucony teamed up with Dunkin’ Donuts, a Massachusetts-based doughnut company, to manufacture a ‘strawberry-frosted-donut-themed’ shoe to honor the 122nd running of the Boston Marathon. The Saucony X Dunkin’ Kinvara 9 comes packed in a donut box and the heel of the shoe is covered in rainbow sprinkles. Avia is an American footwear and apparel company that specializes in yoga products, running and lifestyle shoes, activewear, and accessories. Avia has been changing the fitness and athletics industry, from the Cantilever sole that transformed footwear, to the wicking technology in its apparel. The company was founded by Jerry Stubblefield in 1979 and is currently a subsidiary of the Sequential Brands Group. Avia is well known for the cutting-edge technologies built into its shoes, including the Anatomical Rebound Cradle (ARC), Avila’s FROM technology, and the aforementioned Cantilever Heel. British Knights is a popular shoe brand that was launched by a New York-based footwear retailer as a fashionable alternative to performance sportswear brands. This brand has positioned itself as music-driven and thus is famous with the predominantly streetwise young people. By introducing 4-5 new shoes to its already extensive collection annually, the brand has become extremely popular with 15-to-25-year-old males in urban communities. Today, British Knights are one of the leading athletic footwear brands in the US in terms of popularity.

Founded in 1914, Seattle-based Brooks Sports (also known as Brooks Running) originally manufactured footwear for a broad range of sports. However, the company made a strategic decision in 2001 to focus on only running shoes within the sports retail market, and the brand never looked back. Last year, Brooks reported double-digit revenue growth, driven by the robust sales of the company’s shoes for avid runners, including Adrenaline and Brooks’ Ghost footwear models. The company recently launched what it calls its most innovative shoe, the Levitate.