adidas Adizero Pro Evo 1 – You can’t afford them
subtitled: and neither can I
More: direct from adidas
Is this a game-changing development emerging in the world of racing shoes? Has the super shoe seen its first hyper-shoe successor? Or is this simply a case of hyperinflation hitting running footwear?
Carbon plate running shoes are commonly referred to now as super-shoes. Many of us have regularly used them over the last few years perhaps even to the point now where we use them for training as much as racing. Nike VaporFly is a good example of an early race super shoe credited with great cushioning and added propulsion from technical innovations in foams and carbon plates.
But…
A big but.
Many racers still love the speed gains derived from lightweight racing flats. Physics just tells you that a lighter weight (shoe) swinging on the end of a pendulum (your leg) needs less energy than a heavier one. Other things equal, a lighter shoe is definitely faster than a similarly featured but heavier one.
Enter adidas
More: Full details of what an eyewatering £400 gets you with these shoes at adidas.com
More: adidas running shoes we both can afford 😉
adidas Adizero Pro Evo 1 is the featherweight of super shoes. Well, featherweight in the sense of weight rather than ability. It weighs an insignificant 138g (4.86oz) which is probably about the same as some of my hiking socks. It’s almost certainly the lightest super-shoe on the market as of today, or at least that’s what adidas says. Airfly comes in at 210g and the New Balance FuelCell SuperComp at 199g. Now you know.
Other key tech details show a stack height of 39mm at the heel and 33mm at the front – a 6mm drop.
How did adidas do this?
The prototypes were experimented on by using a lighter-than-air hydrogen-filled balloon in the sole but one of the designers unbelievably, was a smoker and you can guess what happened next. After the Health & Safety at Work people got involved, adidas instead opted for a lightweight upper, a redesigned lighter outsole, and a next-gen version of the company’s Lightstrike Pro foam material. So, it weighs just about nothing and gives superior energy return.
The balloon metaphor doesn’t end there. The aforesaid smoking designer mused on how to make a hot air balloon stay up longer. Yep, throw out as much as possible. So out went the sock liner. Job done.
Feature Alert: Pro Evo 1 has revamped geometry with a first-of-its-kind forefoot rocker, placed at 60% of the length of the shoe. This innovation is lab-tested to trigger forward momentum and improve your running economy.
The Pros Hate It
Non-adidas-sponsored pros are fuming. They definitely hate it.
The adidas pros…less so.
This is the lightest racing shoe I have ever worn and the feeling of running in them is an incredible experience – like nothing I’ve felt before. They enable me to put my full focus on the race, which is exactly what you want as an athlete. I feel ready to defend my title in Berlin and can’t wait to lace up at the start line in these. [Tigist Assefa, adidas Pro]
and
Having Adidas’s lightest racing shoe ever, loaded with cutting-edge technology, ensures I can concentrate solely on my performance. [Benson Kipruto, adidas Pro]
Why Are These Shoes Faster?
- Market-leading low weight in the super shoe class
- Foam returns energy and provides cushioning
- Forefoot sole rocker might improve your running economy
- EnergyRods limit energy loss
- Adizero heel stabiliser tech which minimises energy loss
Price
These are made in a limited batch and will certainly completely sell out within a couple of weeks and, no, I haven’t got a free pair. You can buy these now.
See the details of what an eyewatering £400 can buy you at adidas.com
Take Out
Probably extremely fast. Definitely expensive. We both want a pair.
This guy hasn’t got them.
Joshua Cheptegei | Gutted About his STRAVA GPS Track | 5000m World Record
Heads Up: This is not a sponsored post and I don’t get any commission if you buy anything from adidas with these links. However, I do get free stuff from adidas from time to time. I hope you enjoyed the read. And as a PS it really is adidas without the capital A.
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Clunker shoes at my size is a big issue. Popular and well-reviewed shoes do not always scale to a large size in a comparable way. A lot of shoes will be way over 300g. 300g is kind of a threshold of this isn’t fun anymore and 330g is normally my limit for a shoe that I’m going to want to spend a lot of time in.
The Boston is pretty clunky at 375g for a 10 and 358 for an 11 (that has upper durability problems).
The Takumi Sen 8/9 are in the 240g range which is good for a marathon shoe but not so much for a 5k flat. The Adios 8 is 264g which is like what normal people are used to and it has become my base trainer.
The Adios Pro is currently too heavy if you aren’t a tiny person. The Adios Pro 3 is 278g which is fine for a trainer but not for a race shoe.
These weights are uncompetitive with Nike and even ASICS and Saucony. Even home town competitor Puma is doing much better on weight in large sizes than Adidas.
This thing is going to be probably <170g in my size 12UK.
Adidas has a problem across the adios running range where the shoes are heavier than they need to be. This may be a bespoke race shoe but presumably the research that shaved all those grams will filter into the rest of the range.
Less is less. I’m all for this to be the trend. (Except for the inflated pricing.)