Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4: First Thoughts

The Rebirth of the Adidas Adios Pro 4

The 2024 fall marathon season is starting out with a bang. Just in time for the first of the three fall majors, Adidas has finally announced the long awaited update to its go-to race day shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro 4. 

It’s been nearly three years since the last version was released; in that time, we’ve seen records fall and countless races run in the shoe, before it gave way to the even more premium Adizero Evo Pro 1. For fans of the three stripes who can’t shell out the half band of bills for that model, the Adios Pro has always been an acceptable replacement. 

Here at Believe in the Run, we’ve run a handful of marathons in the Adios Pro 3 and always enjoyed its performance on race day, especially the underfoot feel of the Lightstrike Pro midsole. However, we thought that some improvements were due, especially in the fit and materials of the upper. The good news? Adidas listened to it all and, instead of rushing to get a new product on the shelf, took its time in developing the right update.

And what an update it is. Let’s get into the shoe.

Overview of the Adidas Adios Pro 4

Quite literally, this is an entirely different shoe than the past version, from the laces to the upper on down to the midsole and outsole. 

A new lacing structure with more congruent eyestays provides an easy-to-dial-in fit, while the laces themselves are new as well. Also– a lace pillow on the tongue, for which we all rejoice. The lace pressure on version 3 could really throw a wrench into things mid-race if it wasn’t dialed in exactly right. The upper itself is a thin and soft woven material that stretches in one direction– vertically, in order to adjust with the movement of the foot through the stride and into impact without sacrificing lateral lockdown. Since it is a very thin material, an all-new Lightlock band is positioned internally, wrapping from the heel around both sides to the throat of the shoe, giving extra support around the foot.

The midsole is still Lightstrike Pro (39 mm in the heel, 33 mm in the forefoot, 6 mm drop), but it’s clearly a different formulation, one that is lighter with more energy return. The dual layers of Lightstrike Pro are sandwiched around the carbon fiber EnergyRods 2.0, with an adjusted geometry that’s a straight up replication of the ones found in the Evo Pro 1. The lessons learned from that shoe are clearly incorporated into the Adios Pro 4, as the fulcrum point of the rods in the forefoot have been moved back in the same manner, now at the 60% distance from the heel, providing a more aggressive rocker and toe-off. 

Moving onto the outsole, a targeted patch of Continental rubber is placed at the toe-off point (as opposed to the entire outsole as in past versions). The rest of the rubber coverage is an all-new Lighttraxion rubber that features a unique geometry adapted to the wear patterns observed during in-lab testing. 

All of that sounds juicy, and it is, but the secondary story here is that the shoe lost nearly an ounce of weight as well, coming in at just above 7 ounces for a US M9, making it one of the lighter options on the market, behind only the Asics Metaspeed series and Adidas’ own boy wonder in the Evo Pro 1.

Our First Thoughts on the Shoe

We’ve had this shoe for a little over two weeks and have run a handful of workouts in it during our leadup to the Berlin Marathon, where– yes, we of course will be wearing the shoe.

Flat-out, this shoe rips.

It’s clear that this is a bridge between the Adios Pro series and the Evo Pro 1, and that Adidas took the time to properly incorporate those performance technologies into a shoe that competes with every other race day shoe in the price department. 

Before we even put the shoe on our feet, it was obvious that it was an improvement. In hand, the upper is soft and supple and incredibly light to the touch, all things that that Adios Pro 3 lacked. The lace pillow that we wished for had magically appeared. It felt light, because it is.

Getting the fit dialed in was a simple process compared to past years. The stitched-in tongue helps to wrap the foot perfectly, in conjunction with the Lightlock bands. It’s one of our favorite uppers of any race day shoe and it’ll honestly be hard to beat. 

It also just looks incredible, the three bold stripes and with the slight orange hits and the little Easter eggs under the heel pull tab are all perfect in their simplicity.

On the run is where things heat up. At slower paces it’s kind of pointless, but once it starts revving up into higher RPMs, it really starts peacocking its true colors. The Lightstrike Pro formulation is clearly different and an improvement over any other shoe with the foam. It is indeed light and bouncy and you will likely be running faster than you think when you look down at your GPS watch.

We’re definitely loving the reconfigured EnergyRods placement, as you can really feel them roll you through the stride, providing that quick turnover that you’ll find in more heavily rockered shoes, just a bit snappier. Part of that snappy feel is also in part to the grippy rubber in the forefoot– combined with the fit of the upper, it really allows you to dig in and take corners with confidence.

The price remains the same at $250, which is really going to turn the heat up on some of its competitors. 

We’ll give a full review after the marathon, where we’ll obviously put it to the test of 26.2 in the streets of the motherland, but for now, I’ll say this– we run a lot of marathons, in a lot of different shoes. Sometimes, due to press obligations and/or event promotions, we have to wear a shoe that may be good, but wouldn’t be our first pick on race day. 

As I mentioned, we’re running the Berlin Marathon in just a few days. And for at least a couple of us (myself included) the Adios Pro 4 would be our first pick, all other things considered and taken into account. 

That is quite an improvement.

A limited release of the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4 will be available prior to the Berlin Marathon with a wide release coming in January 2025. You can pick up the shoe for $250 by using the shop links below.