Saucony at ANSH46: from Saucony Creek to ProGrid

Some sneaker brands arrive with a story about a founder in a garage. Saucony's starts by a creek in rural Pennsylvania, more than a century before the running boom. Today the brand is one of the quiet constants of running culture, and this season a small run of its ProGrid Omni 9 has landed in our Rotterdam store.

A factory by Saucony Creek, 1898

Saucony's first factory opened in 1898 in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. It was founded by four local men: William A. Donmoyer, Thomas S. Levan, Walter C.C. Snyder and Benjamin F. Reider. The name came from the water next door. Saucony Creek ran alongside the factory, and the brand still carries it. The logo is a nod to the same place, a reference to the steady flow of the creek and the boulders along its bed.

The name has always caused a little confusion outside Pennsylvania. At one point the company printed the intended pronunciation, "sock a knee", on its shoe boxes, which tells you how often people got it wrong.

From Kutztown to Boston

The second half of the story begins in Massachusetts. In 1910 Abraham R. Hyde, a Russian immigrant, set up A.R. Hyde and Sons in Cambridge. Hyde built a business in athletic footwear, with names such as Spot-Bilt and PF Flyers, and in 1968 the company bought Saucony. Over the following decades the running shoes became the most important part of the business, so much so that in 1998 Hyde Athletic Industries renamed itself Saucony Inc.

Ownership changed a few more times after that. Stride Rite bought Saucony in 2005, Stride Rite became part of Collective Brands in 2007, and in 2012 Wolverine World Wide acquired the group that included Saucony. The brand has stayed in the Boston area throughout, and in 2024 it opened a Global Innovation Hub in downtown Boston that brings its design and product teams together.

Built for runners first

What makes Saucony interesting to us is that it never really stopped being a running company. The shoes that now turn up in streetwear rotations were designed as training tools, for people logging miles rather than looks. The brand's heritage range, Saucony Originals, takes those older models, such as the Shadow, the Jazz and the Hornet, and brings them back in new materials and colourways. It is a simple idea, and it works because the original designs were solid to begin with.

The ProGrid Omni 9

The ProGrid Omni 9 comes from a slightly later chapter. The Omni line was Saucony's long-running stability series, developed through the 2000s for runners who wanted structure and support underfoot. The ninth version arrived around 2010, with ProGrid cushioning in the heel and a dual-density midsole.

That makes it a proper period piece. It has the layered mesh and synthetic overlays, the busy, technical lines and the chunky stance of a late-2000s performance runner, the exact look that the current revival of tech runners has been digging up.

At ANSH46 we carry the ProGrid Omni 9 in five colourways:

How to wear it

The Omni 9 is a shoe with a lot going on, so let it lead. The lighter pairs, White/Racing, White/Touch and Blissful/White, sit well under wide trousers or relaxed denim, where the mesh and overlays peek out from a full hem. Gulf/Eggshell and Sage/Black are the earthier options and pair easily with olive, brown and washed black, or with a pair of cargo shorts when the weather allows.

Keep the rest of the outfit simple: a heavyweight tee, a track jacket or a plain knit is enough. The point of a shoe like this is the contrast between something built for the road and the way you choose to wear it in the city.