Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3: 97 grams, 500 euros and the sub-2

The shoe that carried the first official sub-two-hour marathon is back in stores. The adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, worn by Sabastian Sawe when he won London in 1:59:30 on April 26, returns in a larger run than the spring release and with the same calling card: 97 grams in a men’s US 9, a 39-millimeter midsole and a price of 500 euros that places it, beyond any debate, at the very top of the market.

It is the first super shoe from a major brand to weigh less than 100 grams, and the figure is not catalog decoration: several specialist outlets have put it on a scale and the needle stops at 97.27 grams. To put that in perspective, it weighs less than a chocolate bar and about 30% less than the previous version, the Evo 2, which was already one of the lightest racers in the field. Its return also comes on the eve of the New York City Marathon, run this Sunday, November 1, which closes the 2026 calendar of major marathons.

How you get to 97 grams in a marathon shoe

Stripping weight from a racing shoe is a war of attrition in which every gram costs more than the last. The first Adios Pro Evo, introduced in September 2023, came in at around 138 grams and already looked like a lab object. The third generation cuts more than 40 grams from that starting point, and does so without giving up the foam height a record-pace marathon demands. The savings do not come from one place, but from reworking the shoe piece by piece, from the foam down to the laces and stitching.

Comparing it with its direct rivals helps measure the leap. Benchmark super shoes from other brands, such as the Nike Alphafly 3 or the Asics Metaspeed Sky, comfortably exceed 180 grams in similar sizes, and some approach 220. The Evo 3 comes in at less than half of several of them, a difference you will not notice over a couple of kilometers, but one that, repeated over the tens of thousands of footstrikes in a marathon, becomes one less load to lift with every stride.

Adidas claims the result is a shoe 30% lighter than its predecessor, with 11% more energy return in the forefoot and a 1.6% improvement in running economy. These are the brand’s own lab figures and should be read as such: running economy varies a great deal from one runner to another and depends as much on the stride as on the shoe. What is beyond doubt is that no marathon shoe this light had ever been built with this much foam underfoot.

Lightstrike Pro Evo and Energyrim, the change the scale does not show

At the heart of the shoe is a new version of Lightstrike Pro Evo foam, adidas’s racing compound. The brand says it weighs almost half as much as the Evo 2 compound, and those who have tested it agree it is softer and bouncier than the previous generation. The midsole measures 39 millimeters at the heel and 36 at the forefoot, with a 3-millimeter drop, below the 40-millimeter cap World Athletics sets for road racing.

The most significant novelty lies in the structure that gives the shoe its stiffness. For years, the hallmark of the Adios Pro family was the EnergyRods, carbon rods that mimicked the bones of the foot. The Evo 3 replaces them with the Energyrim, a carbon fiber rim that runs around the edge of the midsole and leaves the central area free. That puts stability at the edges, where it is needed most, without the weight of a solid heel-to-toe plate.

The practical effect is interesting. With less carbon under the center of the foot, the foot sinks deeper into the foam and the ride feels softer than with a conventional plate, with a push that arrives at the end of the stride thanks to the pronounced toe rocker. Early testers expected an unstable shoe when they held it, so thin and so tall, and found the opposite: the carbon rim supports the foot on both sides and the ride is more predictable than in other, heavier super shoes.

An upper inspired by kitesurf sails and Continental rubber where it counts

The upper is almost translucent. Adidas explains that it drew on kitesurf sail fabric to achieve an ultra-thin material with a plastic feel that holds the foot precisely with almost no structure. Reinforcements are limited to a small ankle pad, a minimal heel counter and the eyelets; the tongue is attached to the sides so it does not shift, and the fabric carries micro-perforations to improve breathability, one of the weak points of the first Evo models.

The outsole fixes the most talked-about flaw of the Evo 2. That shoe relied on a liquid rubber compound that slipped alarmingly on wet asphalt, something more than one runner suffered in rainy marathons. The third version brings back Continental rubber, from the German tire maker adidas has worked with for years, in a very thin sheet under the forefoot and a minimal piece at the heel. The center of the outsole is left bare, because weight rules here too.

Fit deserves a note for anyone thinking of buying a pair. The last is narrow around the toes, like the brand’s other racers, and several testers chose to go up half a size from their usual number for a little more room in the second half of a marathon, when the foot swells. It is not the most comfortable option for wide feet.

London, Berlin and a year adidas will not forget

The shoe was unveiled at the Tokyo Marathon and introduced to the wider public in London, where the April 26 race rewrote the record books. Sabastian Sawe crossed the line in 1:59:30, the first marathon under two hours in a sanctioned race, and Yomif Kejelcha, making his debut at the distance, also broke that barrier in 1:59:41. That same day, Tigst Assefa set the women’s-only world record, 2:15:41. All three were wearing the Evo 3.

Sawe’s mark carries a different weight from Eliud Kipchoge’s 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019. That was a made-to-measure event, with pacers rotating in and out and conditions outside the rules, and it never counted as a record. London happened in a mass-participation marathon, with rivals and with the usual rules, among tens of thousands of amateur runners who set off on the same streets a few minutes later.

The year carried on along the same path. At the Berlin Marathon in September, the top three men and the top three women all finished in the Evo 3, the first clean sweep by a single model on the podium of a major marathon. Shortly afterwards, Time magazine named it one of the best inventions of 2026. With New York just around the corner, adidas can close a season in which its athletes have posted a large share of the year’s fastest times.

It is worth keeping the focus where it belongs. No shoe trains for an athlete or holds the pace when the body begs to stop at kilometer 35. The record belongs to Sawe and his preparation; the Evo 3 is a tool that squeezes a few more seconds out of those already in shape to fight for them.

Who a 500-euro shoe makes sense for

The short answer is very few runners. The Evo 3 is designed for elite athletes and for the very fast amateur, the one who approaches a marathon aiming to break three hours or to get close to two and a half. Specialist reviewers point to paces under 3:45 per kilometer over long distances, and to runners with an efficient stride and a settled forefoot or midfoot strike, able to load the foam and make the most of its return.

Durability is the other big caveat. A shoe this light is not built to rack up mileage: some testers estimate a useful life of 80 to 100 kilometers at race pace, which in practice covers one or two key races and a few important sessions before each. At 500 euros a pair, the cost per kilometer blows away any comparison with a conventional shoe.

For everyone else, which is the vast majority, the Adizero family itself offers more sensible alternatives. The Adizero Adios Pro 4 and the new Adios Pro 5 keep the racing philosophy with more weight, more durability and a much lower price, and for training the reference is still the Adizero Evo SL, with no plate and the same base foam. A super shoe does not make up for incomplete training, and the high-level runners who have tested it insist it is the last piece of the puzzle, not the first.

Anyone who wants to put it in context can look back at how it all began with the first Adizero Adios Pro Evo, the shoe that opened this saga in 2023, or compare options in our guide to the best carbon plate running shoes, with models for almost every pace and budget.

Price, sizing and where to find it

The price has not changed since the first Evo: 500 euros in Europe, 500 dollars in the United States and 450 pounds in the United Kingdom. The first batch went on sale in late April, during London Marathon week, in very small quantities. This re-release, which started in the United States on October 29 on the adidas website and at select stores, increases the number of pairs somewhat, although the brand stresses they are sold on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last.

In Spain it is listed on the adidas online store, in white with black details, and at some specialist running shops. The most sought-after sizes, the middle of the men’s range, are the first to go, so availability depends heavily on size and on the store. Be wary of prices well below 500 euros outside the usual channels: with a model this coveted, counterfeits and inflated resales show up quickly.

What 97 grams says about the future of the marathon

Every technological leap in racing footwear has reopened the same debate, and this one will be no exception. World Athletics caps midsole height and the number of plates, but not energy return or weight, and the Evo 3 shows that there is still room within the rules. Other brands will likely try to copy the perimeter carbon rim, and federations will once again ask whether the current limits are enough.

For amateur runners, the underlying story is a different one. What today costs 500 euros and lasts a hundred kilometers tends, over the years, to reach more affordable and durable models, just as the foam and plate of the first super shoes ended up in mid-priced training shoes. In the meantime, the Evo 3 stands as a kind of Formula 1 car for the road: an extraordinary machine that only performs at its best in the hands of those who know how to drive it, and one that already has its place in marathon history for having been on the feet of the man who broke two hours.

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