The Adidas Shoe That Cracked the 2-Hour Marathon: Everything You Need to Know

In a marathon, margins are everything.

Over the course of 26.2 miles, seconds quickly compound into minutes, and the difference between a fine race and a personal best, perhaps even a world record, can simply come down to the direction of the wind.

But we’d be fools to discount the shoes.

Records are meant to be broken

At the 2026 London Marathon, Sabastian Sawe became the first person to break the two-hour barrier in an official race, culminating nearly a decade of research and development in super-shoe technology starting with the Nike Vaporfly.

Adidas

But perhaps even more incredible was the fact that he wasn’t the only one.

Mere seconds behind him was Yomif Kejelcha, who finished the race with a record that will likely outlast Sawe’s new world best: the fastest debut marathon in history.

Getty Images/Alex Davidson

Both runners couldn’t be more different. Sawe came into the 2026 London Marathon as a long-distance specialist, not to mention the reigning champ after winning the race in 2025.

Yomif, meanwhile, has competed at distances all over the map. He’s the former world record holder in the indoor mile and competed in the 10,000m at the 2024 Olympics.

Getty Images/Warren Little

If there’s a common denominator between Sawe and Yomif, both are sponsored by Adidas, which means both wore the same shoes: the brand-new Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 unveiled just days before the race.

Adidas

Light on your feet

Even before the race, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo had little left to prove.

Since the first edition, released back in 2023, Adidas’s top long-distance racer has helped its athletes break over a dozen world records, national records and notable course records. It also set a new Olympic record on a very hilly course in Paris.

In 2024 alone, Adizero models were responsible for half of all victories at World Major Marathons.

Adidas

The new Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 has a lot going on compared to its accomplished predecessors, but the true calling card is what it leaves behind.

Adidas

In a US size 9, the shoe clocks in at at astonishingly light 97 grams (3.4 ounces), plus or minus a few decimal points for variance on the factory floor.

But no matter how you slice or dice it, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 is lighter than a small apple, modern smartphone and virtually every super shoe that’s come before.

Thanks to Sawe, Yomif and Tigist Assefa, who also wore it in London to set a new women-only world record, it’s faster, too.

Adidas

Compound interest

On paper, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 does everything super shoes do to cut a few grams from one generation to the next.

It has a new lightweight, almost-translucent upper, as well as a retooled outsole that, by itself, weighs close to nothing.

Adidas

Adidas

However, according to Charlotte Heidmann, who oversees the Adizero line at Adidas, a new midsole is the main weight saver compared to the previous generations of the dominant racer.

“The foam itself without the stiffening element is already fifty percent lighter than the previous versions,” Heidmann tells me over a video call.

“So because it’s the biggest part of the shoe, you can save the most weight there.”

Adidas

Interestingly, Adidas still calls it Lightstrike Pro Evo, the same name for the material found in the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2.

And while Heidmann won’t disclose specific densities or materials, the head of Adizero does confirm that it’s still a non-compression molded foam, as was the case with previous iterations.

“Through that, you can always achieve a lighter weight than if you just have a normal molded foam or compressed foam,” Heidmann adds.

Off the rim

Alone, the weight of the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 might be enough to usher in a new era for super-shoe technology. But it also marks a potential evolution beyond one of the category’s defining characteristics to date.

In place of a traditional plate, the shoe utilizes what Adidas calls an EnergyRim. Think of it as a thin cutout of carbon fiber that extends around the perimeter of the shoe, rather than sitting underneath the forefoot.

Adidas

It’s a similar technology to what Adidas added to the Adizero Prime X Evo optimized for ultramarathons, though precisely tuned here for the 39mm stack height.

The result, Adidas claims, is a 1.6 percent increase in running economy when paired alongside the new foam and retooled outsole and upper, resulting in the lightest racer on the road.

Adidas

If that doesn’t sound like a lot, it’s important to remember one of the great truths of marathoning, especially when it concerns elite athletes: margins matter.

Adidas

“For them, at the pace that they go, that can be either first place or fifth place,” Heidmann says.

Or, in the case of Sawe, Yomif and Tigst, first place and history.

Availability and pricing

Like previous generations, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 costs $500 and rolls out initially with a highly limited release.

A wider drop is scheduled for fall marathon season, which begins with the Berlin Marathon on September 27.

Adidas

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3

• $500 at Adidas

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