You can buy them in the UK soon, just £450 and I suspect they'll disintegrate quickly... https://www.adidas.co.uk/adizero-adios-pro-evo-3-shoes/KH767...

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pcchristie 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If anyone's interested, the shoe being purchasable by the general public is a condition of them being deemed legal for pros, after a crackdown on Supershoes a few years ago.

The other conditions as I recall are there is only allowed to be one carbon plate in them and a maximum stack height of 40mm.

It really is incredible that Nike kicked off this Supershoe arms race ten years ago and spent (presumably) an incredible amount on R&D, marketing and hype to try and complete the mission of being the first shoe to go Sub-2, and Adidas has pipped them at the last minute... twice in one race. Oh to be a fly on the wall at HQ today...

Though I assume they made a lot of that cash back in the interim selling these things to weekend warrior suckers like myself!

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nl 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Most superfoam shoes actually last longer than older EVA-based foams:

> Improved durability: Supercritical foaming produces a more consistent cell structure in a midsole. This should translate to pressure and weight being more evenly distributed, which should lead to greater durability of the midsole. “We’ve done a lot of testing of what foams look like on a dynamic impactor fresh versus 300 or 500 miles later, and we see less degradation in those materials longer-term,” FitzPatrick says.

> At least in terms of the midsole’s life span, super foams may have done away with the conventional benchmark that running shoes last about 300 miles. “I think it’s a dated standard,” Caprara of Brooks says. “It’s an easy go-to to help simplify. But every foam is different, and it’s not just the foam—it’s how it’s constructed, the shoe’s geometry, the rubber underneath it. There are so many factors. If I were to tell you the Glycerin Max lasts 300 miles, that’s probably less accurate than it is accurate. It’s probably closer to 500.”

https://www.runnersworld.com/gear/a64969945/secret-to-super-...

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brewdad 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Much like the road bikes that cost as much as a sedan, unless you are competing on a world stage, these aren’t meant for you.

I’m sure someone will happily sell them to you if you enjoy wasting money.

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helsinkiandrew an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> unless you are competing on a world stage, these aren’t meant for you.

There’s a lot of people trying to get a 3 hour marathon or some other goal where chasing the marginal gains is worth the cost to them.

	▲	Maxion a minute ago \| parent [-]
		10% improvement on a 5 hour marathon time is more absolute seconds than on a 2.1hr marathon time.

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sampullman 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You don't need to be competing on the world stage to enjoy some of the benefits of Alpha flys or those pumas. 500 for the new Adidas does seem a little silly though.

	▲	canucker2016 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		While the foam may last longer than older EVA foam shoes, the outsoles of the shoes have gotten ridiculously thin these days. The continental rubber outsole on these Adidas Adios Pro EVO 3 shoes are so thin (less than two sheets of paper, I think), that they don't even appear in side/profile views of the shoes. The outsole doesn't even extend the length of the entire shoe, it stops around the middle of the shoe. So heel strikers aren't welcome and will have loads of fun in wet weather. see https://www.adidas.com/us/adizero-adios-pro-evo-3/KH7678.htm... In general, these high stack, forward-leaning shoes are meant for going straight ahead - imagine ladies' high heel shoes with an inch and a half of foam on the bottom - any sharp turns will force the runner to slow down or they'll twist their ankles. Looking at the London Marathon course, https://www.londonmarathonevents.co.uk/london-marathon/cours..., there's about twenty ninety-degree or sharper turns.