The Gist 100ConsumerOctober 2026
ASICS is the default. The rest depends on the question.
ASICS is named in 87% of AI answers about running shoes. Below it the order moves with the question: Hoka is in 100% of answers that recommend brands and 25% of answers that shortlist three shoes to try.
By Gist GEO team · October 2026
Share of AI answers about running shoes that name each brand
Gist put eight buying questions about running shoes to four assistants and counted the brands in 305 answers. One name comes back more than any other. ASICS appears in 87% of answers and is the first brand named in 40%. Claude names it in 100% of its answers and ChatGPT in 99%. Brooks follows at 69% and Nike at 65%. The 18 points between first and second is the widest gap between neighbors anywhere in the top seven.
Behind ASICS the field is wide and tightly packed. The answers name 22 brands at least once and 4.8 in a typical answer. From Brooks at 69% to New Balance at 42%, six brands sit within 27 points of each other. Then the table falls away. Puma, in eighth, scores 20%. On and Mizuno, the next two names, score 6% each and stay off the page.
The pattern a reader might not guess is how far the wording of a question moves the order. Asked which brands to buy, the answers name Hoka, Brooks and ASICS 100% of the time. Asked for the best running shoes, they name ASICS in 100% of answers, Adidas in 98% and Nike in 95%, while Brooks drops to 55% and Hoka to 35%. Some brands are recommended as names and others as shoes. ASICS is the only one at 100% on both.
ASICS leads or shares the lead on every question but one. It scores 100% on the best running shoes, on brands to buy and on shoes for flat feet. Its widest margin comes on shoes worth paying more for, where it scores 94% and the next brand, Nike, scores 58%, a gap of 36 points. Budget is the exception. There ASICS falls to 55%, behind Adidas at 95%, Nike at 80%, Brooks at 65% and New Balance at 62%. For a rival, budget is the one question where the default is already another brand.
The question about which brands to buy is the generous one. Seven brands score 75% or more on it, with Hoka at 100% and New Balance at 93%. The question about which three shoes to try first is the strict one. Only ASICS, at 88%, and Brooks, at 70%, score above 48%. Saucony is at 48%, Nike at 45%, Hoka at 25%, and Adidas and New Balance at 15% each. Between the two questions Hoka falls 75 points and New Balance 78 points. The shortlist question sits closest to a purchase, and a high score on the brand question does not carry over to it.
Adidas is the only brand on the page with scores above 90% and scores of 0%. It is in 98% of answers about the best running shoes, and it leads the budget question at 95%. On shoes for beginners and shoes for flat feet it scores 0%. The excerpts offer one visible reason. The answers credit Adidas with fast shoes, the Adizero Evo SL for tempo days and the Adios Pro Evo for racing, and with value. Brooks runs the other way, at 100% on flat feet and 28% on shoes worth paying more for. An overall score of 51% blends near-certainty with absence.
A typical Claude answer names 7.1 running shoe brands. ChatGPT and Perplexity each name 4.5, and Google AI Overviews names 2.7. On the shortest lists little is left after the leader: on Google AI Overviews only ASICS, at 58%, is named in more than 38% of answers. Long lists make room for the lower half of the page. Hoka is in 81% of Claude answers and 15% of Google AI Overviews answers, the widest split in the category. Puma is in 46% of Claude answers, 8% on Google AI Overviews and 0% on Perplexity. For these brands the overall score hides how much rests on a single assistant.
Who each company is, and how it shows up in the answers
87% of AI answers
ASICS is a Japanese sportswear company headquartered in Kobe. It makes athletic and lifestyle footwear, apparel and sports equipment, and is particularly known for its running shoes. The company traces its origins to a sporting-shoe business that Kihachiro Onitsuka established in Kobe in 1949, and it took its current form in a 1977 merger.
Founded 1949 · Kobe, Japan
Two shoes anchor the mentions: the Novablast, which answers call an all-purpose daily trainer, and the Superblast, which one answer reports as the top road shoe in a major tester review. Answers also credit the lineup for cushioning and stability. Claude names ASICS in 100% of answers, and its lowest score is 55%, on budget.
69% of AI answers
Brooks is an American company that designs and sells running shoes, clothing and accessories. John Brooks Goldenberg founded it in Philadelphia in 1914, and it made shoes for a broad range of sports until it narrowed its focus to running in 2001. Brooks is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and has been part of Berkshire Hathaway since 2006.
Since 1914 · Seattle · Part of Berkshire Hathaway
Dependable is a word the answers use more than once. They describe the Ghost as a traditional daily trainer and the Adrenaline GTS as the stability pick. Brooks scores 100% on flat feet and on brands to buy, and 28% on shoes worth paying more for.
65% of AI answers
Nike is an American company that makes athletic shoes, apparel and sporting goods, including running shoes such as the Vaporfly, which came out in 2017. Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight founded it in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports, a distributor for the Japanese shoemaker Onitsuka Tiger. It became Nike in 1971 and is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon.
Founded 1964 · Beaverton
Mentions spread across the range: the Pegasus as a value pick, the Vomero for maximum cushioning and the Alphafly for race day. Perplexity names Nike in 92% of its answers, more than any other brand, while ChatGPT names it in 52%. Its scores run from 95% on the best running shoes to 25% on flat feet.
57% of AI answers
American running shoe brand.
A balance of comfort and responsiveness is the quality answers cite, with the Ride described as a versatile trainer and the Hurricane as a stable shoe for newer runners. Saucony scores 96% on brands to buy and 88% on flat feet. It is the first brand named in 0% of answers.
51% of AI answers
German sportswear company.
Speed is the theme. Answers name the Adizero Evo SL as a light, quick daily trainer and the Adios Pro Evo as a race shoe, and one calls the brand strong on value. It leads the budget question at 95%, then scores 0% for beginners and for flat feet.
43% of AI answers
Running shoe brand known for thick cushioning.
The answers tie this name to plush, heavily cushioned shoes: the Clifton for easy miles and the Mach as a light daily trainer. Every answer about which brands to buy includes it, a score of 100%. Claude names it in 81% of answers and Google AI Overviews in 15%.
42% of AI answers
Boston-based athletic shoe company.
Answers single out soft cushioning and a wide choice of fits, mostly through the Fresh Foam line. New Balance scores 93% on brands to buy and 62% on budget, then 15% on the three shoes to try first. Claude names it in 68% of answers.
20% of AI answers
German sportswear company.
Light trainers and race shoes are where the answers place it, and the Velocity Nitro and Deviate Pure Nitro are the models they name. Claude includes Puma in 46% of answers, ChatGPT in 25% and Perplexity in 0%. Its highest score is 43%, on the question about shoes that last longest.
The three brands named most for each question Gist asked
| Question | Named most | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| What are the best running shoes right now? | ASICS 100% | Adidas 98% | Nike 95% |
| Which running shoe brands do you recommend? | ASICS 100% | Brooks 100% | Hoka 100% |
| What are the best budget running shoes? | Adidas 95% | Nike 80% | Brooks 65% |
| Which running shoes are worth paying more for? | ASICS 94% | Nike 58% | Adidas 49% |
| What are the best running shoes for beginners? | ASICS 88% | Nike 85% | Brooks 75% |
| What are the best running shoes for flat feet? | ASICS 100% | Brooks 100% | Saucony 88% |
| I'm buying new running shoes this week. Which three should I try first? | ASICS 88% | Brooks 70% | Saucony 48% |
| Which running shoes last the longest? | ASICS 75% | Brooks 70% | Adidas 62% |
Share of each assistant’s answers that name the brand
| Brand | All four | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Claude | Google AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASICS | 87% | 99% | 90% | 100% | 58% |
| Brooks | 69% | 70% | 86% | 81% | 38% |
| Nike | 65% | 52% | 92% | 76% | 37% |
| Saucony | 57% | 64% | 45% | 84% | 34% |
| Adidas | 51% | 56% | 50% | 62% | 35% |
| Hoka | 43% | 38% | 38% | 81% | 15% |
| New Balance | 42% | 39% | 31% | 68% | 29% |
| Puma | 20% | 25% | 0% | 46% | 8% |
The websites AI cites most on running shoes, by share of answers
Review sites supply most of the evidence: RunRepeat is cited in 63% of answers, Tom’s Guide in 47% and RTINGS in 39%. No brand site makes the most cited list. The assistants differ. Claude cites RunRepeat in 91% of answers and ChatGPT in 10%. Perplexity leans on the publisher Runner’s World, at 88%, which Claude and Google AI Overviews cite in 0%. Google AI Overviews cites YouTube in 71% and Reddit in 35%. ChatGPT adds brand sites: asics.com is in 42% of its answers and adidas.com in 26%.
Three moves the numbers point to
Put review coverage ahead of brand content. RunRepeat is cited in 63% of answers, Tom’s Guide in 47% and RTINGS in 39%, while the site of the leading brand, ASICS, is in 11%.
Compete on the question about which shoes last longest. Its leading score is the lowest of the eight, ASICS at 75%, and Puma, eighth overall, already reaches 43% there. Give reviewers durability data they can cite.
Start with Claude, where the field is widest. It names 7.1 brands per answer against 2.7 on Google AI Overviews, and its most cited sites are RunRepeat at 91% and Tom’s Guide at 86%.
Analysis · 4 min read
A typical Claude answer names 7.2 brands, against 3.6 for Google AI Overviews. Claude gives 186 of the 304 brands in a published top ten their highest score, and ChatGPT never names 22 of them. Which brands appear depends on the assistant, and one overall score hides it.
7.2 vs 3.6Brands per answer, Claude vs Google AI Overviews
Gist asks a fixed set of eight buying questions in each category. None of them names a brand. Each question is put to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews ten times, with web search on.
A brand’s score is the share of answers that name it, averaged across the assistants so that each one counts equally. Stores and review sites named in passing are not ranked. Brands named in fewer than one answer in ten are left off.
Measured October 5 to October 6, 2026.
No. It shows which brands AI assistants name when asked, not which products are best. Being named often usually reflects how much has been written about a brand, and where.
The page shows the 10 most-named brands. The free scan checks your own brand on a topic you choose.
Yes. AI answers shift as assistants are updated and as new pages are published. The date at the top shows when this ranking was measured.
See which brands appear in AI recommendations for your category, and where your brand stands among them.
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