Adidas AG has released a $500 running sneaker, the latest entry in the super-shoe competition.
The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 is the German company’s lightest-ever racing shoe, it said. Weighing 138 grams (4.9 ounces), it’s 40 percent lighter than Adidas’s most recent talked-about marathoning shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro 3. It’s also twice the price of that model.
The Adios Pro Evo 1 is also considerably pricier than Nike Inc.’s Alphafly 2, a $275 road-racing shoe.
Adidas’s latest model is being launched just as the fall marathon season kicks off in Berlin on Sept. 24. That pancake-flat event, which Adidas sponsors, is widely considered one of the world’s fastest. Last year, Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge smashed his own world record there with a time of 2:01:09. Kipchoge is returning to Berlin this month to defend his title. He is, however, sponsored by Nike.
The Adios Pro Evo 1 is designed for professionals and “ambitious runners” willing to pay so much for a shoe that’s not designed for everyday use.
The shoe includes Adidas’s trademark carbon “energy rods” in the sole, a technology introduced last decade at the onset of the running world’s super-shoe era. Nike kicked off that race when it combined carbon plates with a new type of extremely light and bouncy foam, which combines to give people a better energy return with each step.
Companies from Hoka to Brooks to New Balance have since introduced competing models, with the technology helping pros slash considerable time off of many world records both in track races and on the roads.
For the latest model, Adidas has created a new version of its Lightstrike Pro foam, removed a sock liner to make it lighter and introduced a new type of outsole.
By Tim Loh
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