The $500 Adidas Shoe That Just Broke The Two-Hour Marathon Barrier

By Elliot Nash - News

Updated: 28 April, 2026

Readtime: 4 min

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Two adidas athletes broke the two-hour barrier in an official marathon wearing the new adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3
Tigist Assefa also set a women-only world record of 2:15:41 in London
The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 weighs just 97 grams on average
adidas says it is 30 per cent lighter than the previous model
New Lightstrike Pro Evo foam and ENERGYRIM carbon system target maximum efficiency
Limited release launched at USD$500, with wider availability expected later this year

Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha broke the two-hour barrier at the London Marathon in an official race, clocking 1:59:30 and 1:59:41 respectively, while Tigist Assefa set the women-only world record at 2:15:41.

Breaking records is a milestone for any athlete. But it’s what they wore when they did it that has the running world talking.

Making its race debut in London, the new adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 arrived with immediate results.

Adidas adizero adios pro evo 3 1 — adidas adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 Image: Supplied

Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3: The Engineering Behind The Speed

Weighing an average of just 97 grams, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 is the first sub-100 gram race shoe from adidas and the lightest model the brand has ever produced. According to adidas, engineers spent three years refining the design through more than a dozen prototypes, testing everywhere from its Herzogenaurach labs to high-altitude camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, while measuring components “down to the nearest nanogram”.

“Our goal was two digits on the scale, with better performance than we’ve ever had,” said adidas VP Product Stephan Scholten.

Built around a new Lightstrike Pro Evo foam and carbon-integrated ENERGYRIM system, adidas claims the shoe is 30 per cent lighter than its predecessor, delivers 11 per cent greater forefoot energy return, and improves running economy by 1.6 per cent.

And over 42.2 kilometres in London, it delivered more than just lab numbers.

Adidas adizero adios pro evo 3 12 — adidas adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 Image: Supplied

Why Super Shoes Matter

There’s a reason adidas was working at the nanogram scale. Marathons are measured in tiny margins. Over two hours of racing, a one per cent improvement can be the difference between winning, fading late, or making history. Much like the fascination around Gout Gout’s sprint times, split seconds matter.

Independent experts have also weighed in on the rise of the super shoe. Speaking to Scientific American, Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman said modern supershoes effectively add “a spring on your foot”, storing energy on landing and returning it through toe-off. He estimates the latest race shoes can reduce energy cost by as much as four to six per cent.

In other words, F1 and running seem to have more in common than once thought.

The shoe still can’t run the race for you. But elite athletes now have tools that reward efficiency in ways previous generations never did.

Adidas adizero adios pro evo 3 4 — adidas adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 Image: adidas

Price and Availability

The adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 launched in a highly limited release on 25 April, priced at USD$500. A wider rollout is expected later in the year ahead of the next major marathon season.

Now your everyday runner probably doesn’t need to drop that amount of money to help them with their weekly marathon training rotation. No, these are purely for the elite-level athletes and those with too much money to know any better.

The Evo 3 was built for the sharp end of the sport, where seconds matter, records fall, and 97 grams can suddenly feel very heavy for everyone else chasing them.

And while your current set of runners aren’t record breakers, give it time. These features will make their way to baseline soon enough, and by then, who knows how many records will be broken?