For the past 50 years, the American running-shoe market has been dominated by Western brands, including Nike, Adidas, Brooks, and, more recently, Hoka. But over the past year or so, running Subreddits and message boards have been buzzing about shoes made by Chinese companies. These shoes, their fans say, are at least as good as other brands’ and can be had for one-half to two-thirds of the price. Yowana Wamala, the creator of the running-shoe app Supwell, told me that he would love the Chinese shoes he now wears even if they cost more: “The performance-to-value ratio is unmatched.”

As someone whose lifetime mileage to date tops 130,000 and who writes about running, I had personal and professional reasons to look into this phenomenon, and I’m a convert too. I paid $90, shipping and tariff included, for the Li-Ning Red Hare 9 Pro. It’s the equivalent of the Puma Deviate Nitro 4 ($170) and Saucony Endorphin Speed 5 ($175). The BMAI Jingtan 3.0 Turbo cost me $161, again including shipping and tariff. The shoe is akin—but superior—to racing shoes such as the Brooks Hyperion Elite 5 ($275). I’ve run in hundreds of models from dozens of brands over the past 47 years, and the BMAI model and a few other Chinese shoes are among my all-time favorites because of their combination of ride (the feel underfoot), versatility, durability, and price. (I received some of the Chinese shoes I tried as free samples for a review for another publication, as is standard practice for running-shoe reviews.)

The problem was how hard the shoes were to get. In some cases, I shopped on AliExpress, the Chinese online marketplace, which was not straightforward to use. In others, I had to enlist the help of a Chinese shoe influencer. Unfortunately, fans of Chinese running shoes might need to keep using these kinds of work-arounds. It turns out that some of the very factors that make the shoes so good at such low prices mean that most won’t be widely available in the U.S. anytime soon.

How can Chinese running shoes be both high quality and inexpensive? Answering that requires a little background about running shoes in general, which have undergone major changes in recent years that have helped runners break record after record.

The primary advancement over the past decade has been in the materials used in the midsole, the part above the sole itself that provides cushioning to the foot. Traditional midsoles were made of ethylene-vinyl acetate and could be higher, to provide more cushioning, or lower, to save weight. That trade-off no longer matters. Today, midsole foams made of compounds such as polyether block amide, thermoplastic polyester elastomer, and aliphatic thermoplastic polyurethane are much more lightweight and return as much as 90 percent of the energy put into them, providing a previously impossible combination of performance and protection.

These modern midsole foams are made in Chinese factories that contract with shoe brands. A top manufacturer, Shincell, makes midsoles for Western brands including Adidas and Puma, and Chinese brands such as Anta and Li-Ning. But some Western brands—among them Nike—import the raw materials for these foams into China, adding to their production costs. Hui Wang, a financial analyst and influential Chinese  shoe reviewer, told me that industry reports peg polyether block amide made in China at approximately 35 to 50 percent of the cost of imported versions. Wang also explained that other running-shoe parts, such as outsoles and uppers (which cover the top of the foot), are produced in factories located near ones that manufacture midsole foam, in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. “Basically everything you need to make a running shoe—even a shoebox and a hang tag—is right there in that cluster,” Wang said in an email.

[Alex Hutchinson: Is it the shoes?]

China has seen a running boom in the past decade. Although Chinese companies including Do-Win and Anta have been around for decades, the growing interest in running in China has led them to greatly improve the quality of their offerings. New brands—BMAI, Dynafish, Runsifly—have popped up in the past few years, as the manufacturing cluster that Wang described has made it easy to make excellent shoes. Some of China’s millions of runners pay high prices for the prestige of wearing Nike or Adidas, but more and more are buying domestic brands.

The factory setup in China also shortens production cycles. In China, moving from prototype to an order for mass production can take as little as three months, according to Lei Yu, a U.S.-based consultant who has tried to bring Chinese brands to the United States. Western brands typically develop shoes over two or more years. The sped-up timeline for Chinese brands means that their shoe technology can be more advanced. For example, only a few higher-end Western shoes available now have outsoles made from casting polyurethane, which is lighter and provides better traction than the rubber used in most current Western models. Of the 30 Chinese shoes I’ve tried, 26 have outsoles made of casting polyurethane or a similar compound.

Another reason that Chinese brands can keep prices low is that they use a direct-to-consumer model, almost entirely online, that significantly reduces nonmanufacturing expenses such as marketing. Fierce competition further reduces prices. According to Yu, it’s rare for a Chinese shoe to sell at its listed retail price; discounts of 30 to 40 percent starting on the day a shoe is released are typical.

So why aren’t more Americans running in Chinese shoes? The issue isn’t analogous to Chinese EVs, which the U.S. government has kept out of American markets through tariffs and an effective ban. Nor is it similar to when the FDA denied Americans high-quality foreign sunscreen. It’s almost entirely because the Chinese brands’ business model clashes with the U.S. market’s setup. An informal survey I conducted of several economists unearthed no obvious parallel in other industries.

The U.S. running-shoe market has its quirks. One is that only an estimated 20 to 40 percent of the approximately $50 billion in annual sales are to people who intend to run in the shoes. This suggests that the majority of running shoes are worn for walking and everyday life by people who just want to be comfortable. These shoes tend to be brands’ more basic models, not those made for high performance. Because most Chinese running shoes are performance-oriented, Chinese brands would be unlikely to capture much of the U.S. market, giving them less incentive to push their products in America.

A second oddity is that the smallest channel for sales has an outsize influence over the market. According to Matt Powell, an industry analyst for BCE Consulting, so-called run-specialty stores—online or brick-and-mortar retailers that focus on running and offer shoes from several brands—account for roughly 10 percent of running-shoe sales in America. (Brands’ direct-to-consumer sales make up about one-third of sales; the rest are through big-box stores such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and large online marketplaces such as Amazon.) But run-specialty stores have traditionally been where new brands debut outside the brands’ own sites, and typically help shoes gain traction. For example, Running Warehouse, a top online running-shoe retailer, was the first independent website to carry the now-ubiquitous Hoka, its co-founder Joe Rubio told me.

But according to several specialty store owners I spoke with, Chinese brands don’t seem interested in working with them, at least not yet. Rubio said that he’s been trying for years to carry Chinese brands. Some companies he’s talked with want him to manage getting the shoes from China to the U.S.—a major logistical challenge, “which is different than what I do with anybody else,” he said. “I order from Nike; it shows up on my doorstep, right?”

A key part of the run-specialty system involves shoe brands’ sales reps showing retailers upcoming models well in advance of their release—something that Steve Moore, the owner of Run Moore in Westminster, Maryland, told me he relies on to make purchasing decisions. He talks with his Altra rep weekly; the day before we spoke, his Asics rep had shown him the company’s spring 2027 lineup. He would want the same in-person relationship with Chinese brands, and that would require them to field sales reps, which they aren’t currently doing. “I want to feel those shoes,” Moore said. “To have even a Zoom call with somebody in China tell me what their latest and greatest is—that’s not good enough for me.”

Peter Gilmore, the director of footwear for the 32-store Marathon Sports outfit, told me that his company hasn’t had a lot of discussions with Chinese brands, outside of seeing them at trade shows. Rubio told me that last year at the Running Event, the industry’s largest trade show, the Chinese brand Anta was unwilling to let potentially interested retailers leave with samples, which is common practice. (I asked an Anta spokesperson about this but didn’t get a response.)

[Amanda Mull: Cool people accidentally saved America’s feet]

To break into the U.S. market, Chinese brands would also need to adopt the generous return policies that American consumers are used to. Wang, the Chinese shoe reviewer, told me that in China, shoes typically have to be returned within seven days, unworn and with tags attached, which doesn’t give the runner much of a chance to see whether a particular shoe suits them. American retailers are also accustomed to flexibility on returns. Rubio and Moore said that if a model isn’t selling well, they can cancel their future orders, and swap their current inventory for a different model. When an individual customer wants to return a pair of shoes, retailers typically get invoice credits, Moore told me—that is, the brand counts the cost of the return against Moore’s orders. Rubio said that smaller Chinese brands he’s talked with haven’t been open to adopting similar return policies.

So far, only two Chinese brands, Anta and 361 Degrees, have U.S. commerce sites. Neither has a meaningful presence in running-shoe stores. In an email, an Anta spokesperson told me that the brand is “actively making efforts to talk with them to expand our channels.” Phil Anthony, the general manager of the 361 Degrees U.S. branch, wrote that “the USA team will continue to present the product to the industry and hope to smartly gain distribution.”

Rubio told me that he used to carry 361 Degrees but stopped because he couldn’t get the models he wanted. “I’m the only idiot looking at doing business with these guys and trying to figure out a way to make it work for both sides,” he said.

American runners seeking out Chinese shoes can still buy them if they go looking. In addition to the U.S. commerce sites for Anta and 361 Degrees, the brand Li-Ning has a store on Amazon’s U.S. site. AliExpress is another option. Powell, the industry analyst, said that direct-to-consumer is the future for running-shoe sales. But to succeed on that front, Chinese brands would need to create a U.S.-based distribution and shipping system.

In June, Wamala started selling the Dynafish Xiaonian on Supwell, his app. He’s charging $130 for a shoe that many reviewers liken to premium daily trainers such as the Asics Megablast model, which retails for $225. He’s starting small, with 500 pairs, and plans to add inventory later in the summer.

It’s possible that Chinese shoes will catch on with more time. I’ve persuaded a few friends to buy Anta’s Zone 2, which retails for $120 and is comparable to many $150 Western shoes. Anta runs Instagram ads and could reach runners who aren’t shoe nerds like I am. But Yu, the consultant, told me that Chinese brands entering the U.S. market will have to invest much more heavily in marketing to make a dent in an already crowded space. Doing so would inevitably raise the price of the shoes, and the performance-to-value ratio that’s such a big appeal now would decrease.

In the U.S., running has become a more social activity than it used to be. Many runners want to feel like they’re part of a community, and brands work to create emotional attachments with their consumers. At big races—the Boston Marathon, for example—pop-up stores offer the chance to run with sponsored elites and mingle with like-minded souls. Chinese brands don’t seem to be tapping into this phenomenon. Nor are they active in local races or group training runs. Anta put on its own run-club gatherings in at least 10 U.S. cities last year, but it hasn’t yet attempted to master this kind of more grassroots involvement.

Gilmore, of Marathon Sports, captured the dilemma that American runners face in the meantime. He tried on some Chinese shoes last year at the Running Event. “My feeling trying them on was, These feel good, bouncy, and comfortable, but what next?” Generating sustained demand, he said, takes more than making great shoes.