Exclusive: Inside Adidas’ Running Strategy

Adidas’ new supershoe is already off to the races.

Two of the first three men across the finish line at the annual Boston Marathon this past Monday — Alphonce Simbu and CyBrian Kotut — wore the newly unveiled Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2, the second generation of the $500 supershoe the brand introduced in 2023. Releasing tomorrow in limited quantities, it’s Adidas’ fastest running sneaker to date, offering a “significant improvement” in energy return, according to Alberto Manganelli, global general manager of running for Adidas. Although first place went to Asics athlete John Korir, who recovered from an early fall to come back and win the race, it was a strong showing for Adidas, which has big ambitions for its running category in the year ahead.

The company has been on a tear, recovering from its own near-disastrous stumble when it ended its Yeezy partnership in 2022 to come surging back on the strength of low-profile lifestyle shoes like the Samba, but running is one category where Adidas saw space to improve.

In elite competitions it’s outpacing its rivals, with athletes in its shoes collecting the most victories across the world’s major marathons last year, including at the Olympics, while runners wearing its top-end Adizero franchise have won 51 percent of the world’s top 50 races since 2023 — more than all other brands combined — according to the company.

But attracting the growing tide of casual runners, who see running as a lifestyle as much as a competitive sport, is where Adidas has ground to make up. One analysis of more than 100,000 runners in North American races last year, ranging from 5k runs to full marathons, found that only 5 percent wore Adidas, leaving it behind running stalwarts such as Nike and Brooks but also smaller players like New Balance and young challenger Hoka. While Adidas is more popular in its home region of Europe, chief executive Bjørn Gulden acknowledged on the company’s earnings call last month that the brand had been lagging with casual runners.

“We are taking market share in all, I would say, the performance categories that people buy shoes to run fast from A to B,” Gulden said. “Now when you then look at everyday running and comfort running, all the brands have clearly done a better job than us.”

Adidas has been working to revamp its assortment, continuing to release top-tier, speed-focussed shoes but also new models such as the $150 Adizero Evo SL for athletes seeking everyday performance, with more to come. Internally, the company refers to the audiences it serves as “the few and the many,” the few being premier competitive runners and the many being those who put in a few miles at the park every Saturday, or just buy running shoes because they’re comfortable. Manganelli noted that Adidas takes a portfolio approach to make sure it has the right shoe for every level.

“It’s a big investment in innovation,” he said.

The updated portfolio is yielding results. In the quarter through the end of 2024, Adidas reported double-digit growth in running, as its offering won more shelf space at retailers.

The company still sees more work ahead to capitalise on the running boom of the past few years, with roles for premium shoes like the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2 all the way through to its products for everyday athletes.

The Few and the Many

Like its predecessor, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2 is made from ultra-lightweight materials with a midsole composed of cutting-edge foam encasing carbon rods — an Adidas innovation — to help absorb the wearer’s footfall and release that energy as they explode forward. The Pro Evo 2 midsole is even larger, though, delivering a 5 percent increase in energy return, according to Adidas. At a price of $500, matching the first-generation shoe, it won’t be for everyday use.

Supershoes generally aren’t a volume play, even if carbon-plated sneakers have been one of the biggest trends at races in recent years, including among non-professional runners. Nonetheless, they play a vital role in the product lineup.

“It’s a form of equity-building fundamentally,” Manganelli said. “Some of those design elements, they become popular, become famous, create desire and can be applied in different products for different types of needs.”

Supershoes can also be the impetus for new innovations, which trickle down from those products for the few into what Adidas creates for the many. Because of the manufacturing process required, from the chemical composition of the foam to constructing the sole with its propulsion plate, the Pro Evo line is complex and expensive to make. Adidas can only produce about 1,000 units a month. But by adjusting the construction, Adidas created its LightStrike Pro midsole, which Manganelli said doesn’t have quite the same energy return but is far more scalable and accessibly priced.

That midsole features in the Evo SL, a style that has been a massive hit for the company and which Adidas plans to scale to millions of pairs over the coming year. “We can’t keep it in stock,” Gulden said on the earnings call.

“The Evo SL brought me back to the Three Stripes,” said Christian Weigand, creator of the Instagram account Runner’s Highest and founder of the run club Irregular Practice in Frankfurt, Germany. “I think it’s one of the best shoes from the past years.”

Weigand said he had lost his connection to Adidas, but the Evo SL is his most-worn road running shoe at the moment.

Adidas is hoping to replicate that success elsewhere. It has new models coming in its reworked Supernova line, focussed on cushioning and comfort for casual runners, and updates to the popular Boost midsole it first released in 2013.

It has continued to add new styles for serious runners as well, such as the $250 Adios Pro 4 — another more accessible iteration of the Pro Evo 1, complete with Adidas’ carbon rods — and the just-announced Adizero Boston 13, a new addition to its Boston line.

“​​We are a large brand, and we really want to fulfil all the needs of different consumers,” Manganelli said.

Breaking Away from the Pack

Adidas faces stiff competition and a crowded field, however. Young challengers such as Hoka and On have been successfully drawing in more and more casual runners. Nike has seen momentum with the Pegasus Premium as it fights its way out of its slump and just announced the ambitious project to make Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon the first woman to break the four-minute mile. Even in the supershoe category there’s no shortage of contenders, with new releases including the On LightSpray and Puma’s Fast-R Nitro Elite 3.

To make sure its products connect with their intended customers, Adidas also needs to put the right items in the right channels. In running, that often means specialty stores.

“There are a lot of runners who go to their local run store, and that’s where brands like Brooks and Saucony really double down,” said Jay Holder, executive director of the non-profit Running USA, which commissioned the study of running shoes worn at North American races.

Holder noted that Adidas seemed to have pulled back on its presence in running specialty shops to pivot towards direct-to-consumer sales over the years, potentially accounting for why it lagged as a choice of many US runners in the study. When Gulden came in as Adidas’ CEO in January 2023, he made it a point to reestablish the brand’s relationships with retail partners. That effort is still ongoing at the same time that Adidas reworks its running portfolio.

“Looking at the past six months to a year, Adidas’ assortment, from a running point of view, it’s really improved,” said Victor Ornelas, senior director of vendor management at running chain Fleet Feet, which carries a breadth of Adidas products from the Pro Evo 1 to lines like Supernova.

From what he’s heard from Fleet Feet’s stores, Ornelas said Adidas has tended to attract more high-performing athletes, but there’s been an uptick among the broader base of runners lately. Part of the interest seems to be spreading from running influencers who aren’t necessarily elite competitors but more the type of runner that, as Ornelas put it, “defines their own ‘fast.’”

For its part, Adidas expects a competitive race ahead. Manganelli said the Adizero franchise has grown dramatically over the past several years, and based on current forecasting, expects it to expand even more in the next 12 to 18 months.

But even beyond that line, the company believes it has the right product range to be present everywhere in the pack, not just at the front.