As athletes and spectators marvel at, not one, but two men smashing the once-thinkable two-hour barrier in this year’s London Marathon, German sports gear maker Adidas AG also has reason to celebrate.
Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe and Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha were both clad in the brand’s new and ultra-light $500 (€425) racing shoe as they crossed the finishing line on Sunday.
Sawe pulled away from Kejelcha in the final moments of the race to achieve a stunning world-record time of 1 hour 59 minutes and 30 seconds, more than a minute faster than the previous best for the event. Kejelcha finished just 11 seconds behind, a remarkable feat in his first-ever competition at the 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometer) distance.
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa poses with her Adidas shoe and winnng time © Photo credit: Ian Walton/AP/dpa
In the women’s race, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa pulled away from Kenya’s Hellen Obiri in the last mile to win in a time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 41 seconds, slightly faster than last year, when she broke the women’s-only world record.
New shoe weighs just 97 grammes
For all three, the common denominator was Adidas’s Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, a shoe the company debuted on Thursday and which weighs just 97 grammes (3.42 ounces) in a standard size. That’s the lightest-ever version of the sort of running sneaker that has transformed the sport of disdistance running the past decade.
“This is a testament to the years of hard work and dedication they have made, alongside our innovation team, who have built a supershoe which breaks new ground,” said Patrick Nava, general manager of running at Adidas.
Obiri was wearing On Holding AG’s LightSpray Cloudboom Strike, a $330 laceless racing shoe that’s produced by robots. She smashed her own personal best in the process, taking second place in the women’s race behind Assefa.
Sawe even surpassed the time of Eliud Kipchoge, who in 2019 ran the distance in a time of 1:59.40 during a Nike-organized event in Vienna that wasn’t eligible for world-record status. That event included a host of people pacing Kipchoge for most of the run.
In London, Sawe and Kejelcha pushed each other in the final miles of the race, long after leaving official pacers behind.
Booming business
For brands, having a high-profile winner in their latest shoes adds a stamp of legitimacy. And running shoes are a booming business, with the US market expanding 13% in the year through February to $8.1 billion, according to market researcher Circana LLC. It’s a major piece of the broader performance-shoe category, which may reach $104 billion in global sales by 2030, according to data from Euromonitor.
Adidas has been rebuilding its running franchise in recent years, looking to capitalize on the booming popularity of a sport that’s helped support the rise of challenger brands including Hoka, On and Brooks. The German company has benefited from strong demand for its comfy $150 Adizero Evo SL sneaker, which is a less intense take on the marathon-racing shoe worn by Sawe and others.
The running push is part of Chief Executive Officer Bjorn Gulden’s efforts to derive more profits from performance sports gear and reduce the brand’s dependence on fashion items like the Samba and Gazelle shoes.
