As athletes and spectators marvel at, not one, but two men smashing the once-unthinkable two-hour barrier in this year’s London marathon, German sportswear maker Adidas also has reason to celebrate.
Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe and Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha were both clad in its new and ultralight $500 (€425.61) racing shoe as they crossed the finishing line on Sunday.
Sawe pulled away from Kejelcha in the final moments to achieve a world-record time of 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, more than a minute faster than the previous best.
Kejelcha finished just 11 seconds behind, a remarkable feat in his first-ever competition at the 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometre) distance.
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, breaking the women’s-only world record she set in the event last year.
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 in a standard size. That’s the lightest-ever version of the sort of running sneaker that has transformed distance running in 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.
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Shares of Adidas rose 1.4 per cent in early Frankfurt trading on Monday. They have dropped about 18 per cent so far this year, amid investor concerns about the impact of economic and geopolitical uncertainty on the sportswear industry.
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.
In the men’s race, Sawe even surpassed the time of Eliud Kipchoge, who in 2019 ran the distance in 1:59:40 during a Nike-organised event in Vienna that wasn’t eligible for world-record status. That 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.
For brands, a high-profile winner in their latest footwear adds a stamp of legitimacy. Running shoes are a booming business, with the US market growing 13 per cent in the year through February to $8.1 billion, according to market researcher Circana LLC. It’s a big piece of the broader performance-shoe category, which may reach $104 billion in global sales by 2030, according to Euromonitor.
Adidas has been rebuilding its running franchise in recent years, looking to capitalise 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.
The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 model is 30 per cent lighter than its predecessor, Adidas said. The shoe contains the company’s latest light and springy foam, which it calls “Lightstrike Pro Evo,” and a new design for the carbon fibre component in the sole that helps propel runners forward, according to the company. - Bloomberg
