Saucony Knows Exactly Who They Are

The landscape of sneakers has changed dramatically since the start of the decade. The “arms race” between Nike and adidas that dominated the 2010s and the years prior is virtually non-existent, and new players are emerging to wrestle market share away from both titans of industry. One of which is Saucony. Unless you were a hardcore runner or sneakerhead, you may not have been fully aware of what they were cooking, but that’s all changed.

Based on data from StockX’s Current Culture Index for 2025, a yearly report that showcases data for sales across the platform, Saucony grew 59% year-over-year, the third fastest-growing sneaker brand. In 2024, the brand had grown 124% year-over-year, though exact trade numbers were not shared. Adding to the increase in aftermarket sales, Google Trends shows that search interest for Saucony between 2021 and 2026 is up 40% compared to the previous five-year period.

In between the writing and publishing of this article, StockX released its report for the first half of 2026, and Saucony shines once more. The brand dethroned Asics as the fastest-growing sneaker brand, with Saucony sales jumping 239% in the first half of 2026 compared to the first half of 2025.

This interest we’re seeing on Google and on StockX also translates to Saucony’s fiscal reports. Wolverine Worldwide (WW), the parent company that owns Saucony, stated in its 2025 earnings that Saucony revenue increased by $126.6 million. In total, the brand generated $533 million, which is up 31% year-over-year. In Q1 2026, the brand is up 20.1% year-over-year.

The numbers clearly show that Saucony is growing. But they don’t explain why this is happening. While collaborations from partners like Westside Gunn, Minted NY, 3sixteen, and Jae Tips, who left for Nike earlier this year, have certainly brought new eyes and sales to the brand, these projects and partnerships are part of a larger philosophy at the company.

The Saucony Mindset

The team behind Saucony did not sit in a lab and “engineer” this moment for the company. Rather, it was a years-long curation of talent behind the scenes who all align and share a similar vision and mindset. One of the key figures behind this is Jason Faustino, Senior Director of Global Energy at Saucony. If you’ve kept up with our interview series across Saucony’s collaborative roster, you’ll recognize the name. Literally every single partner that we’ve spoken with has name-dropped Jason and given him and the rest of the team high praise.

Jason has a deep history in the footwear space. He was one of the co-founders of Extra Butter and the boutique's buyer for over a decade. But since 2018, he’s been behind the scenes at Saucony, expanding his role from a marketing manager to the senior director of global energy.

If you’re unaware, “energy” in this context doesn't refer to the thing powering your phone or home. It’s basically any product, not just collaborations, that brings interest to the brand. As Jason explained on the My First Kicks Podcast last year, it’s essentially DJing. You may not be creating something from scratch, but “putting the right mix together and curating what’s played” is pivotal in finding success in this space.

Jason was kind enough to find some time between playing hockey, working for Saucony, logging films on Letterboxd, and maintaining his own personal life to sit down with us and discuss just what exactly is going on behind the scenes at Saucony.

Energy Over Hype

Obviously, Saucony has internally recognized that the brand is having a major moment in the fashion space. That’s clear with Saucony making the effort to appear at Paris Fashion Week, which Jason had just returned from when we had our conversation. It was another success for Saucony, displaying upcoming collabs with Stan Birch and Westside Gunn while also giving us sneak previews of inline collection colorways for 2027. “Every department hit a home run in their area. I thought every single part came together really well,” said Jason.

He continued, “Paris reminds us this is a really special time in [Saucony’s] history. I’ve noticed that a few times over the last few years. Like being at the first Minted launch, Jae Tips winning an award.” But resounding success today doesn’t mean the past didn’t have highlight moments as well. Saucony’s president, Rob Griffiths, told Jason, “We’re just stewards of this brand during this time.” Everyone from the past has built Saucony to be able to reach this modern apex, especially in the lifestyle space.

For most brands, reaching a new peak in lifestyle or “hype” spheres means architecting and manufacturing scarcity, but that’s not on the mind of the team over at Saucony. “We’re not making decisions where we’re creating this just to make people angry and drive massive resale. No, we want everyone to win.”

Past projects in the 2010s were severely limited, and if those same stock numbers for releases were still being used for products released today, you’d probably see a lot more discourse online about people being upset with the brand. Jason did acknowledge that “it’s an inexact science,” so if you do miss out on hot drops like the recent a-Feeling x Saucony ProGrid Paramount, don’t take it personally.

Building the Saucony Universe

Speaking of a-Feeling, Jason also discussed how much trust he put into Drew White’s brand. Giving a (technically) unproven brand the creative freedom that we saw in the rollout of the ProGrid Paramount collab, which was briefly sold without revealing exactly what sneaker it was, is huge. We put “technically” because, prior to starting his own label, Drew had been working with well-known retailer Bodega for years and had helped design multiple Saucony collabs for the brand.

Drew also spoke highly of Saucony and Jason, but he’s not the only one. From 3sixteen’s Andrew Chen to Estudio Niksen’s founders Andrés Barrios and Gabrielle Gagné, and the brothers behind Minted NY, Marcus and Shawn Milione, every collaborator has sung the praises of Jason and the Saucony team.

Jason told us that finding a collaborative partner isn’t as simple as just discovering some up-and-coming or popular designer/brand and slapping together a project. He described it as if the two brands are dating.

“If meeting a collab partner feels like your first or second date, and they’re already wanting to look at the lease of the apartment you guys may share together, I’m not ready for that. I don’t know why they’re ready for that. It feels awkward. If I came at it that way, I might make them feel a certain way.” Instead, Jason says you have to feel out that first date and see if you are “excited to see where this goes.”

But Jason isn’t just making these decisions based on his own personal feelings toward a brand or partner. The whole company shares a similar mindset about collaborators, which is one of the biggest factors in the success of Saucony. Jason said, “I think about everyone from my first sales rep at Saucony when I worked as a buyer for Extra Butter to the people who I only worked with for a year or two before they moved on to the intern that’s been here three months. I see so much similarity between the personalities as far as what they value, how they are, and what type of people they are.”

Creating successful energy for a brand is not plug-and-play. If your marketing team and designers are on different wavelengths and look at the end product differently, then the messaging will get crossed. Jason knows this and admits that “If you were to remove me from this position and do it at another brand, the same strategy won’t work. It’s not in the brand’s DNA.”

This mindset and mentality across the brand is not something that is being explicitly written down or crafted. “Someone recently said, ‘Saucony knows exactly who they are.’ Exactly, this isn’t in a strategy deck,” said Jason. “We’re following our own path, and whether you’re new or have been here many years, we’re somehow very much aligned. Finding that alignment [with collaborative partners] as well makes for some special times.”

Casting Collaborators Like Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson is by no means employed by Saucony or has any actual affiliation with the company, but follow me (and Jason) here. During our talk, Jason mentioned that if the employees were movie characters, they’d all fit into the same film. But what about how Saucony casts its collaborators? What director is a good parallel? Jason was quick to compare Saucony to Wes Anderson.

“There’s a consistency with his aesthetic and his score, but overall there’s usually a consistency within the actors and the characters.” Jason is right. When looking at Wes Anderson’s choice for actors, you have some serious heavy hitters that have stuck around for years, and even if they may not be in every single Wes Anderson production ever, there is a core group of actors who continue to appear across his filmography.

Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston. All of these actors have successful careers outside of the Wes Anderson universe, but even if they are able to go out and do some mega-commercial project, they come back to the place that fosters their creative spirit. Sounds a lot like… Saucony.

At the end of the day, designers and creatives don’t like to be boxed in. Working with a director like Wes Anderson or a footwear brand like Saucony that gives collaborators the freedom to be themselves and bring new ideas to the table is more rewarding for everyone involved. Those working on the projects are fulfilled, and the results will speak to a specific audience that is invested in what’s to come.

And while yes, you want to create an environment that is fun for collaborators, you still need to have a specific style that you target. “If we were to watch a movie without knowing who the director was, we should know who the director was just by aesthetic, design language, strength of storytelling, et cetera. I believe that for our footwear too,” said Jason.

Just looking at the cast of collaborations and partners who have been with Saucony in the past five years, there is a throughline that touches them all, from Jae Tips to Stan Birch, Keith Haring’s estate, Metagirl, Westside Gunn, and more. Flair. None are afraid to be who they are.

Jae Tips wasn’t going to mute his color palette or tone down the floral references. Keith Haring, of course, is forever associated with loud, in-your-face graphics, and his estate made sure this was front and center. Even the likes of 3sixteen or Minted NY, who target a completely different audience from a Westside Gunn, feel right at home in the Saucony universe.

Why Saucony’s Strategy Works

Jason rightfully pointed out a problem within the sneaker industry that has led to some staleness, and something that has been around forever across all businesses: too much planning. “Maybe there’s too much strategy. Maybe there’s too many cooks in the kitchen, like you’re looking for your return more than you are the energy.”

Another brand may approach a collab and think that because a specific person has a following, it will be an instant success and generate cash, but we’ve seen time and time again that that is not true. Look at what happened to Puma’s partnership with Rihanna and adidas’ with Beyonce. Two of the biggest names in the music industry, one of which (Rihanna), launched a multi-billion dollar high-end fashion line, but couldn’t find success in sneakers. Bey’s line was initially projected by analysts to cross $250 million in sales, but by the end, it was making roughly $40 million.

This is all to say Saucony knows who it is. They’re not out to grab the biggest names in the world and throw a pile of cash, hoping that consumers will buy in. Rather, they can build a loyal audience who knows what they’re signing up for by cultivating brands that fit within their script and direction. The brand is looking to create actual energy that will get you excited instead of sitting back and trying to formulate a collab that’s only out to make cash.

Saucony is not ignoring its business side of the question, but by prioritizing energy, a shared mindset, and collaborators who fit the brand’s identity, growth has followed. But again, Jason’s focus is not on the hard numbers. “Luckily, my role isn’t business growth, although I do think I’ve impacted business growth, but it’s energy instead. We keep that at the forefront and set up parameters that allow our partners to do what they do best.”

More Than a Moment

It’s easy to look at Saucony’s recent run and chalk it up to just a single “moment” they’re having. The industry has seen brands pop up, have a great run for a few years with key collaborators or a silhouette or two that get popular, and then all fade into the background.

What separates Saucony from just having a short flash-in-the-pan is the foundation of its partnerships, the leadership and team members behind the scenes carrying one vision, and knowing exactly who they are. Trends will come and go, and right now, Saucony is able to ride high with retro mesh runners continuing to have staying power. But once the interest around this style of silhouette, which, let’s be honest, is a major backbone for Saucony, wanes, there will be an audience who is buying into the brand itself, not just the product it is offering.

Now, has Saucony reached its The Grand Budapest Hotel apex just yet? In our opinion, no. If we’re sticking to Jason’s Wes Anderson analogy and his filmography, maybe we’re at The Royal Tenenbaums, which Jason is likely happy to hear. It’s one of his few five-star films.

Another brand will eventually swoop in and become the newest obsession of the footwear world. That’s simply the nature of fashion. But if Jason Faustino and the rest of the team behind Saucony continue operating with the philosophy that brought them here, they won’t need to be chasing the next trend. Like Anderson’s fan base, who show up film after film, so too will Saucony’s, because they believe in the energy behind the brand.

Nicholas Vlahos

Sneakerhead from South Florida who turned his passion into a career. When not writing for Sole Retriever, I enjoy watching films and discovering music. Follow me on Letterboxd @nickvlah For tips, reviews, or any shoes in a size 13, email nick@soleretriever.com