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Adidas Selling $500 Running Sneakers Only Meant to Last for One Race
Single-use footwear?
This beggars belief.
Adidas' new $500 ADIZERO Adios Pro Evo 1, designed for marathon runners, is billed as the company's "lightest ever innovation-packed racing shoe." Just 521 pairs of the limited-edition kicks will be made. They've gotten the weight down to just 138g (4.9 oz) using their proprietary "Lightstrike Pro" foam, and Runner's World says the forefoot rocker was "designed to trigger forward momentum and increase energy return."
On top of that, the thin, lightweight rubber outsole is smooth, with no tread; the company says it still offers the same traction as a standard running shoe and has been tested in the rain.
So here's the kicker. Making a shoe this lightweight comes with a trade-off, which is that these things wear out fast. As an Adidas product manager told RW,
"There's a card in all 521 boxes stating that the shoe is designed for 'one race – so one marathon – plus familiarization time.'"
Incredible—it's essentially single-use footwear.
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Continues to drive me crazy that conventional footwear companies can put out this garbage without any concern for what it's doing to people's feet, and bodies in general. Sure, let's strap 4 sponges to each foot and run 26 miles. What could go wrong? Forget the waste of a disposable running shoe, not even getting into that.
I'm sorry, but you don't think some time was put into the engineering of these "sponges" chosen for this shoe, you don't think someone putting in 8-12 hour shifts full time in ill fiting five year old shoes are doing a service to their body? There was an entire lightweight framework inside the shoe you must have missed in one of the photos. That is properly stiff and merits more of the cost on a ONE OFF R AND D PROJECT with practicality not it's objective. Argue with a Marathon runner about how bad it is for their body sometime, see what happens. Who are you?
I did not intend to hit a nerve. And I agree that any time spend in ill fitting shoes is causing harm. For decades we have been sold on the need for cushioning, support, orthotics, etc. when what we really need are strong feet that cushion and support themselves. And we can all do that for free.
As for who I am, a former recreational long-distance runner that has spent years rehabilitating his feet from the deformations caused by conventional footwear.
I thought the goal was to move away from single-use plastics. As an avid runner, I move toward a Vibram barefoot solution if you want to go minimal impact and lightweight.
See also: Nike Mayfly – same idea, an ultralight shoe for serious racers that trades longevity for low weight. https://thedropdate.com/news/nike-mayfly-a-brief-history
Everyone is totally missing the point here. Every shoe is "disposable", it's only a matter of when, not if.
It seems "less" wasteful when you compare it to other instances of peak competitive design such as NASCAR engines that are designed to last exactly one race, then be completely rebuilt. The goal was to create the lightest possible shoe that will last exactly one marathon race, thus lighter weight component parts that can hold structural integrity for the required miles, but not much further. So a bleeding edge design with a specific use case. There are probably gram-sized tradeoffs that could be made to bring the shoe into a more practical format.
Runner and running shoe designer here and my feet are fine. Maybe the shoes aren't your problem, maybe it's just you?
absolutely disgusting waste