Evergreen monthly benchmark — May 23
Running Shoes
May 23Rank Trend
How top brands moved week over week. Rank 1 is the top position.
For a recreational fitness runner, AI still routes to a tight core - ASICS, Brooks, Nike, HOKA, New Balance - But this run is the first where the four models disagreed on the single best pick, returning four different #1s. ASICS is the only brand in all four top-3 lists and Novablast 5 remains the SKU-level default. So the category leadership is intact even though the unanimous-#1 streak broke. Marketplace-strong brands Mizuno and Skechers remain entirely absent.
Top Brands by AI Mention Frequency
Mention frequency counts how many times a brand appeared across all AI responses. This differs from top-pick rank, which reflects each model’s #1 choice.
Opportunity for Brands
- The mid-tier and challenger brands are fragmented: On appears in only ChatGPT and Claude.
- Puma only in Perplexity, Adidas concentrated in Perplexity, and Mizuno in a single response.
- Major brands with real retail presence are absent: Mizuno Wave Rider despite decades of authority.
- Skechers Performance despite Amazon budget dominance, plus Topo Athletic, Altra, Newton, and Salomon.
- No model surfaced a budget-tier sub-100 winner with cross-model agreement, leaving a value gap.
- Skechers being structurally invisible despite marketplace strength is the clearest disconnect between AI recommendation and retail reality.
Cross-Agent Comparison
How 4 AI models rank the same category. Hover a brand to trace it across models.
4 agents · top 3 each
| Agent | #1 | #2 | #3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| chatgpt | HOKA | ASICS | Nike |
| claude | ASICS | Brooks | Nike |
| gemini | Brooks | Nike | ASICS |
| perplexity | New Balance | ASICS | Puma |
What This Means
- The headline shift this run: ASICS lost its unanimous #1, with top-picks fragmenting across all four engines (HOKA for ChatGPT.
- ASICS for Claude, Brooks for Gemini, New Balance for Perplexity).
- Below the top pick the model personalities held: ChatGPT commerce-formatted with price-tagged SKUs, uniquely surfacing Puma Velocity Nitro 4; Claude premium-leaning, surfacing ASICS Superblast 3 And Saucony Endorphin Speed 5 with RunRepeat/OutdoorGearLab citations; Gemini lifestyle-formatted with the strongest Brooks Adrenaline stability framing; Perplexity most consolidated, uniquely surfacing ASICS Megablast, Nike Vomero Plus, Mizuno, and On.
Why These Brands Win
- The brands AI favors share neutral daily-trainer positioning for the 3-4x/week fitness runner, named cushioning-foam technologies (ASICS FF Blast Plus, Nike ReactX.
- New Balance Fresh Foam X), the HOKA rocker geometry as a cited differentiator, durability and a smooth ride over race-day performance, and a 300-500 mile replacement window.
- Every model steers away from carbon-plated race shoes for this persona and recommends a gait analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What running shoes does AI recommend most?▾
Which running shoes brand ranks #1 across all AI models?▾
Why does ChatGPT recommend different running shoes than Claude?▾
What running shoes brands are invisible to AI?▾
How we measure this
Each benchmark runs the same standardized prompts across multiple leading AI systems, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. We use consistent, category-specific questions designed to surface genuine product recommendations — not sponsored results.
Responses are parsed to extract brand mentions, rank position, and frequency. We then analyze cross-model agreement, identify which brands consistently appear in top positions, and flag where AI outputs diverge from marketplace trends.
Evergreen categories are benchmarked monthly. Results reflect organic AI behavior at the time of testing. Read the full methodology
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Conducted personally by Robert Hu.
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