Just Same Sebastian crossed the finish line London Marathonthe Kenyan athlete was already posing for photos, proudly holding his shoe Adidascon “1:59:30” y “WR” written in black ink on the sole.
History had been made: a significant barrier had been overcome, with the first legal marathon under two hours. He didn’t just break the world record, he demolished it. He lowered the mark by more than a minute. Kelvin Kiptum (2:00:35 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon). Yomif Kejelchawho finished second, also ran under two hours and came in just 11 seconds behind. In the women’s event, Tigst Assefa He reduced his own world record by nine seconds (2:15:41).
All three are Adidas athletes and all three competed with the Pro Evo 3. It was an incredible debut for a shoe that Adidas calls the lightest and best it has made yet: test data shows 1.6% improvements in race economy compared to the Pro Evo 2.
Stephan Scholtenproduct vice president of the Adidas running area, assured that the design was born from a “irrational ambition”. Adidas engineers wanted to create something never before seen in a marathon: a super light shoe with exceptional energy return. “Real magic”this is how Scholten described her to The Athletic on a video call from Adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
He watched the race on television from his home with his children. “I was on the phone with our general manager all the time and we said: ‘We’re going to make it, it’s going to happen’. “Everyone went crazy,” he said.
“What we try to do is help athletes perform at their best and achieve the impossible. In the most literal sense, this is one of the few times we were actually able to help do it.”
Adidas’s obsession with creating a lighter shoe
Behind this there was three years of work. The Pro Evo line was launched in late 2023 and dominated road racing. The first two versions were used in seven major victories in 2025. That design was already one of the lightest (137 grams), but they wanted to take it to “double digits,” Scholten explained.
Adidas made modifications based on testing with athletes — including Sawe and Assefa, both at their training camps and at headquarters — to further reduce weight. They were manufactured more than a dozen prototypes.
“It’s always a very iterative process,” Scholten added. “We had to change the geometry of our foam and the configuration of the stiffness element.” By modifying the “formulation” of the foam, They reduced their weight by 50% and increased forefoot energy return by 11%.
“We could always make it softer and softer, but then the support and energy return suffer,” he explained, when talking about the design compromises and the search for the “perfect balance”.
The other key element was moving from energy rods —which Adidas used as a plate equivalent in the first two Pro Evos— to a carbon edge around the perimeter. Scholten explained the internal discussions: “We were thinking: how do we maximize the foam under the foot?”
The redesign made the new Pro Evo a 30% lighter than its predecessor. It also reinforced the consensus among researchers: that the carbon plate was a support element, while the improvements in the foam are the true differentiating factor.
Angus Wardlaw was a sneaker engineer at Adidas during the 2010s and was part of the team that developed Boosta pioneer in modern midsole foam technology.
“This product is designed from engineeringin addition to the aesthetic design,” he said of the Pro Evo 3. “The midsole is softer than any other and has no plate under the load (in the midfoot). So I think it can be compressed much more and the energy return is very high, it returns more. “That is the great advance.”
Wardlaw compared it functionally to a spring and later noted that Puma succeeded in 2025 with similar engineering. Your shoe Fast-R 3launched in April last year, surpassed the main models of Nike and Adidas thanks to market-leading foam and intelligent computer-modelled design. Puma calculated where it could remove foam fragments to save weight without compromising performance.
The engineering behind the sub 2 hour marathon
The competition, Wardlaw explained, changed because World Athleticsthe governing body of athletics, limits the sole thickness of road shoes to 40 mm. Since almost all brands are already pushing that limit, the challenge is no longer making higher shoes. Now it’s about maximize compression and build the most efficient spring possible within the rules: a shoe that stores more energy and returns more of it to the athlete.
To complete the analysis, Wardlaw listed the components: “The reason it is the fastest in the world is that weighs less than 100 gramshas a very high energy returnit’s super soft, so it has this vertical compression. “It still has the carbon flex and the Continental rubber sole, which is the best on the market.”
Adidas’ manufacturing also impresses. Computer Numerical Control Engineering (CNC) uses a tool path to cut the foam precisely, ensuring the best material properties are obtained without treating or reshaping it, a common problem that impairs performance. “This is uncompressed: it is foam in its natural, purest form,” Wardlaw explained.
Scholten detailed how Adidas “fine-tuned” the stiffness of the forefoot, deliberately stopping the carbon edge before the toe and leaving only foam for increase compression when athletes push to the next step. They also put the same focus on the heel, including a “small landing platform” to accompany fatigue.
“Towards the second half of the marathon, even our fastest athletes They no longer have a perfect stride“Added Scholten. “(The design) allows them to support the midfoot a little more without entering too quickly into that overpronation that you normally see in the last 5 or 10 kilometers. “We can maintain a very efficient stride cycle.”
Sawe proved that point at kilometer 30. That’s when the Kenyan made the decisive move to pull away from Jacob Kiplimo, considered his main rival, who ultimately finished third. His last two full 5km splits, run alongside Kejelcha, were the fastest of the entire race: both under 14 minutes. That turned a 2:01 projection into a 1:59.
“They did an incredible job”and food His a The Athletic about Adidas and the Pro Evo 3 at the athletes hotel, the day after his world record. “Now they are the best sneakers ever: very light, with a lot of support and very comfortable.”
He said he felt the propulsion benefits and he said that he started running with prototypes last summer. “I finally got to use them in a race.”
Kejelcha had a similar assessment. “They are very fine, they feel faster“I don’t know, but they are different,” he told reporters in the post-race mixed zone, still smiling.
Three versions of the Pro Evo 3 were approved by World Athletics for road racing. One is a business model and there are two other types in development. All three look the same and Scholten assured that they are “not significantly” different from an engineering point of view. As he explained, it was more of a matter of timing, since Adidas was initially targeting the Tokyo Marathon in early March.
The main criticism to the Pro Evo 3, as with all modern super shoes, it is its sustainabilityespecially considering that they are sold at 500 dollars.
“We put them through extremely rigorous testing, but They are made just for race day“said Scholten. He also acknowledged, with “complete transparency,” that they have a short life cycle: “a couple of marathons.”
Adidas lost the battle in 2019, when Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:35 with some Nike Alphafly in the INEOS challenge, a test not approved for records. But he won the war because he developed the first shoe capable of breaking the two-hour barrier in an open marathon, a feat achieved thanks to a perfect storm: very high-level athletes, excellent race pace and group work, good weather conditions and, decisively, the Pro Evo 3.
“It’s a great moment for us as a company, but even bigger for the sport itself“Scholten concluded. “That’s why we go to work every day.”