HOKA Bondi SR — Spec Analysis (Not Yet Tested)

Spec analysis — not yet tested

The Bondi SR is the shoe nurses, line cooks and hospital techs get pointed at when they say their feet hurt after a twelve-hour shift and their workplace requires slip-resistant, closed leather footwear. It is a Bondi under a leather upper with a grippy outsole — and it is the only shoe in this library sold primarily on a safety claim. So the first question a foot and ankle surgeon asks is not how soft it is. It is: to what standard is “slip-resistant” being measured? HOKA does not say.

What HOKA says the Bondi SR is

HOKA’s US pages classify the Bondi SR under active recovery and professional use: a compression-moulded EVA midsole under a water-resistant leather upper, with a memory-foam collar and tongue lining and what the brand calls an “ultra-grippy, full ground contact rubber” outsole. It is listed at a 6.00 mm heel-to-toe drop, 14.00 oz in men’s and 11.50 oz in women’s, in Regular and Wide only, at a $180 list price. Both pages state that the shoe carries the American Podiatric Medical Association Seal of Acceptance — the women’s page uses the APMA’s own wording, that the Seal “recognizes products that have been found beneficial to foot health.”

Published specifications

The Source column tells you where each figure comes from. “HOKA” means the brand’s own US product page. A lab name means the brand does not publish that figure and somebody else measured it. “Not published” means nobody reliable does — those are the figures our bench measures first.

Specification	Figure	Source
Category	Active recovery / professional use	HOKA
Midsole	Compression-moulded EVA	HOKA
Upper	Water-resistant leather, memory-foam collar	HOKA
Outsole	Slip-resistant rubber, full ground contact	HOKA
Slip-resistance standard	Not published — no ASTM, SATRA or coefficient given	—
Stated drop	6.00 mm	HOKA
Measured drop	7 mm	OutdoorGearLab
Heel stack	40 mm	OutdoorGearLab (HOKA publishes none)
Forefoot stack	33 mm	OutdoorGearLab (HOKA publishes none)
Stated weight, men’s	14.00 oz, about 397 g (size not stated)	HOKA
Measured weight, men’s	14.52 oz at US 10.5	OutdoorGearLab
Stated weight, women’s	11.50 oz (size not stated)	HOKA
Widths	Regular, Wide	HOKA
Removable insole	Not published	—
MSRP	$180	HOKA
APMA Seal	Claimed on both product pages	HOKA

The number that is missing is the one you are buying

“SR” stands for slip-resistant, and HOKA publishes no slip-resistance figure of any kind. Occupational slip resistance has standards — ASTM F2913 and SATRA TM144 both produce a coefficient of friction on a wet or oily tile, and a shoe either was tested to one of them or it was not. HOKA’s pages describe the outsole as ultra-grippy and full ground contact. That is a design description, not a test result. It may well be a genuinely grippy shoe; the point is that on the one property this model exists to deliver, the brand asks you to take its word.

If your employer requires slip-resistant footwear to a written standard, ask HOKA in writing which standard this outsole was tested to and what coefficient it returned, and keep the answer. Do not assume a shoe named SR satisfies a compliance requirement.

Where the numbers are soft

HOKA publishes no stack height for the Bondi SR at all. OutdoorGearLab measured 40 mm at the heel and 33 mm at the forefoot, and measured the drop at 7 mm against HOKA’s stated 6 mm. A one-millimetre disagreement is small, but it is a reminder that the stated drop on a HOKA is not always what a caliper finds — on the Bondi 9 the stated 5 mm drop was measured at 9.1 mm by RunRepeat, a four-millimetre gap.

The weights also do not line up: HOKA states 14.00 oz for men’s without naming a size, while OutdoorGearLab’s scale read 14.52 oz at a US 10.5. Either way this is a heavy shoe — roughly 400 g on the foot, which is about a hundred grams more than the running Bondi. Weight is the figure people underestimate most when they are choosing a shoe for a twelve-hour shift.

And nobody publishes whether the insole lifts out, which is what decides whether your orthotic can go in. On a shoe bought by people who often already wear orthotics, that omission matters more than usual.

What the spec sheet suggests — and what only a test can answer

A 40 mm heel with a 6 to 7 mm drop is a genuinely cushioned work shoe, and that is the honest reason this model has a following. Standing on tile or concrete concentrates load under the heel; height plus drop is the published combination that most reliably reduces what the plantar fascia and the Achilles insertion have to absorb. Whether the EVA holds up over a shift, or packs out by hour eight, is a durometer-and-miles question, not a spec-sheet one.

Leather is the trade. It is what makes the shoe wipeable, water-resistant and acceptable to a dress code — and it is also why it is heavy, warmer, and slower to accommodate a bunion or a hammertoe than the mesh Bondi. A leather upper does not stretch the way engineered mesh does; if you have a prominent first metatarsal head, the width you order matters more here than on any mesh shoe in this library.

Two widths, not four. The running Bondi 9 comes in Narrow, Medium, Wide and X-Wide. The SR comes in Regular and Wide. If you are an X-Wide foot, HOKA does not make this shoe for you, and that is a hard stop rather than something a test would change.

Who this shoe is probably for

Bondi SR or the running Bondi 9?

They are not the same shoe with different skins. On published and measured figures the SR is about a hundred grams heavier, three millimetres lower at the heel, ten dollars more expensive, and available in half as many widths — and in exchange you get leather and a grip-focused outsole. If your workplace does not require leather or slip resistance, the Bondi 9 is the lighter, wider-fitting and cheaper shoe. The SR earns its price only when the dress code or the floor demands it.

Where to buy

Disclosure: the links below are paid links. If you buy through them Amazon pays us a commission at no cost to you. Commissions never influence a score, a ranking or the seal, and this page carries no score because the shoe has not been tested — see our independence policy.

Amazon listings are colourway-specific; the men’s button opens one common black colourway and you can change size and width on the listing. HOKA list price $180 on September 9, 2026; prices move, check before you buy. Also sold directly by HOKA.

Questions people ask about the Bondi SR

Is the HOKA Bondi SR actually slip-resistant?

HOKA says so and does not publish a figure. There is no ASTM F2913 or SATRA TM144 result, and no coefficient of friction, on either the men’s or the women’s product page — only a description of the rubber. Independent reviewers who have worn it on wet kitchen and brewery floors report good grip, but that is experience, not a rating. If a written slip-resistance standard is a condition of your job, ask HOKA for the test result in writing before you buy.

Is the Bondi SR good for plantar fasciitis?

We have not tested it, so we will not rank it for the condition. The relevant published figures are favourable: a 40 mm heel measured by OutdoorGearLab with a 6 to 7 mm drop is a lot of material under the heel, which is where plantar fasciitis loads. The caution is weight — about 400 g — and the leather upper, which does not give the way mesh does. See our plantar fasciitis guide for the shoes we have actually looked at.

Does the Bondi SR have the APMA Seal?

HOKA states on both product pages that it does. The APMA Seal is an acceptance mark, not a performance test: it means a panel of podiatrists reviewed the product as beneficial to foot health. It is a reasonable signal and it is not a measurement, which is why it does not appear as a score anywhere on this site.

Can you put orthotics in the Bondi SR?

HOKA does not publish whether the insole is removable, so nobody can honestly tell you yet. The shoe comes in Regular and Wide only, which is usually the bigger constraint for an orthotic user. We publish an Orthotic Volume Rating — a real orthotic dropped into the shoe and the remaining volume measured — for every pair that reaches our bench, and this one is in the queue.

Do podiatrists recommend the HOKA Bondi SR?

For a wet or greasy floor, the design intent is right: a water-resistant leather upper that wipes clean, a slip-resistant outsole, and HOKA claims the APMA Seal of Acceptance on it. That is a reasonable shoe to suggest to a nurse, a chef or a bartender, and it is why the SR comes up in clinic at all. Two things a podiatrist should say out loud before recommending it. First, at 397 g stated and 412 g measured it is a heavy shoe — roughly 100 g more per shoe than the Bondi 9, carried across every step of a twelve-hour shift. Second, and more important: HOKA publishes no slip-resistance standard for it — no ASTM rating, no SATRA grade, no coefficient of friction — on a shoe whose name abbreviates “slip resistant”. Other occupational brands publish theirs. Podiatrist Tested has not worn or measured this pair, so it carries no score and no seal. The claim in its name is the one thing a spec sheet cannot settle, and our test involves a wet floor.

What happens next

This model is in the queue for bench testing under Standard v1.0: weight on our scale at men’s US 10, heel and forefoot stack with calipers, internal toe-box width and depth, torsional rigidity, heel-counter stiffness and an Orthotic Volume Rating with a real orthotic inside it. On this model we will also ask HOKA directly for a slip-resistance test result and publish the answer, including if there is not one. If you own a pair and something on this page contradicts what is on your feet, tell us — corrections are logged.

Page type: spec analysis. Acquisition: not yet purchased. Last verified: September 9, 2026. Sources: HOKA’s US men’s and women’s Bondi SR product pages for category, midsole, upper, outsole, drop, weights, widths, price and the APMA claim; OutdoorGearLab for measured stack heights, measured drop and measured weight at US 10.5. Author: Tom Biernacki, DPM, FACFAS — board-certified foot and ankle surgeon, about.

Compared head-to-head: HOKA Bondi SR vs Brooks Addiction Walker 2 — cushioning against control, for people on their feet all day.