I ran 35 miles in the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 — is the record-breaking carbon super-shoe worth its $500 price?

The Adidas Pro Evo line has been controversial from the moment the original shoe launched with a $500 price and suggestions it would only last one race.

Those negatives are enough to put off most amateur runners, but the bigger problem I had with the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2 when I tested it was that it didn’t feel all that special to me.

It was light and fast, but didn’t feel a step up on the best carbon plate running shoes that cost half as much and lasted twice as many miles or more.

The Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 is something truly special, and so the same negatives — high price, low durability — don’t feel quite so important to me.

It’s not a shoe that will suit everyone, either with regards to price or its wildly springy and unstable ride, but the Pro Evo 3 is lighter than any other racer I’ve tried, and makes running fast feel near effortless at times.

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 review: price and availability

The Adidas Pro Evo 3 sticks to the same price as past versions of the shoe; it’s $500 in the U.S. and £450 in the U.K., making it the most expensive carbon plate racer on the market.

It’s also hard to get hold of, with the limited stock Adidas sporadically makes available generally getting snapped up in seconds. In the UK, you can enter a draw for when the shoe next goes on sale on 5 October, and more stock is expected in the U.S. at some point this Fall.

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 review: design and fit

The Adidas Pro Evo 3 has only been available in the white and black color it launched in so far, though some Adidas athletes did use a model with a red splash on the forefoot at the Berlin Marathon.

I’m generally in between two sizes and went for the larger one with the Pro Evo 3 to get the best fit — I find with Adidas racing shoes they can come up a bit small, so even going half a size up is worth considering.

The Pro Evo 3 made headlines for being the first sub-3.5oz/100g carbon plate super-shoe at launch and it is absurdly light. It’s 3.7oz/106g in my US men’s size 10, which is around 1.4oz lighter than any other racer I’ve tested in my size, and half the weight of many.

This featherweight design is not down to a lack of cushioning in the midsole either — the Pro Evo 3 stands 39mm tall at the heel and 36mm at the forefoot for a 3mm drop.

Upper

When I spoke to the team behind the design of the Pro Evo 3, they told me the upper on the shoe is inspired by materials used in kitesurfing.

It’s very light and flexible, and there’s minimal cushioning and reinforcement on the upper around the back of the shoe, as you’d expect with low weight being a priority.

On my runs in the Pro Evo 3, the upper has held my foot securely, though, even when pushing to all-out paces, and so far I’ve not seen any worrying wear on this part of the shoe.

Midsole

The Adidas Pro Evo 2 was one of the lightest shoes ever made, and yet with the Pro Evo 3 Adidas found a way to make the new Lightstrike Pro Evo foam in its midsole almost 50% lighter than the stuff in the Pro Evo 2.

It’s an extremely soft and springy foam too, and you feel the softness even more because the Pro Evo 3 doesn’t use a full carbon plate. It instead has a carbon rim that runs around the outside of the midsole, which is called ENERGYRIM.

This adds the stiffness required to maximize the propulsive feel of the midsole while also being lighter than a full plate or the carbon rods Adidas used on past models of its racing shoes.

The soft midsole foam is already showing signs of wear on my shoes, with some small chunks coming out around the forefoot, but it still feels just as bouncy as it did when new.

Outsole

The outsole on the Pro Evo 2 was a bit of a disaster, offering little to no grip in wet conditions, and Adidas has taken steps to improve this on the Pro Evo 3 without increasing the weight on the bottom of the shoe.

There are rubber patches covering the forefoot and heel of the shoe, both of which are just 0.5mm thick, and I have found that the Continental rubber used on the forefoot grips well on wet and dry roads in my runs.

Once again, there are worrying signs of wear on this part of the shoe after 30 miles of running. The back patch on one of my shoes has started to flake away and the tread pattern on the forefoot has worn thin in some places.

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 review: running performance

The Adidas Pro Evo 3 has already proven itself to be very effective when on the feet of elite athletes. Sabastian Sawe ran the first official sub-2-hour marathon in the shoe at the London Marathon in April, Yomif Kejelcha broke the half marathon world record while wearing it in Buenos Aires in August, and all six podium spots at the recent Berlin Marathon were taken up by men and women wearing the Pro Evo 3.

It’s not hard to see why it’s been so successful when you run in the shoe. I’ve done three runs in the Pro Evo 3, including a 20-miler on the road and a long track session running 24x400m reps at my various race paces, and it’s felt exceptionally good on all of them.

I’ve tested pretty much every major carbon shoe ever made too, so I don’t lack for comparisons, and the Pro Evo 3 does feel genuinely special. It’s not just extremely light and bouncy, but also pushes you through each stride so smoothly that hitting and holding fast paces feels like a breeze at times.

What I noticed in both the track session and 20-mile long run, where I did the second half in 59:30, is that my heart rate was lower than normal at faster speeds, and that I recovered more quickly in between reps on the track.

I’ve done similar 20-milers in many different carbon shoes over the past five years as part of my marathon training, and it’s never felt as good as it did in the Pro Evo 3.

There are drawbacks to the design, though. I would definitely say the soft, unstable feel of the Pro Evo 3 will not suit every runner. I’m not sure it would be supportive enough for me as a 2:25 marathoner, especially in the later stages of the race.

If feels like a pinnacle racer built to deliver the fastest times in history, so us mere mortals might only get the best out of the Pro Evo 3 for shorter events than the marathon, and even then you’ll have to be happy running in an unstable shoe that might only be at its best for 100 miles or so.

Should you buy the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3?

There’s a case for saying that anyone who has to buy the Adidas Pro Evo 3 probably shouldn’t. Unless you’re a pro runner getting handed the shoe for free to use at one key event, it’s not a great investment.

It’s wobbly and lacks durability, and my top alternatives like the Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite 3, Asics Metaspeed Ray and Asics Metaspeed Sky Tokyo are also brilliantly fast and efficient racing shoes that cost a lot less than the Pro Evo 3.

However, as an innovative, elite racing shoe, the Pro Evo 3 does deliver on its promise of being the best yet, in my opinion, and that will be enough for many runners to want to give it a go.

There have been points over the past couple of years where I’ve wondered exactly what brands can do to keep improving their super-shoes, given the quality of what’s already out there. The Pro Evo 3 proves there’s still scope to produce something special.