Adidas Adizero Evo SL: First Thoughts

What You Need To Know

Intro to Adidas Adizero Evo SL

Call it premium for the people, or the evolution of the Evo Pro. Call it whatever you want, but officially speaking, the name of the newest shoe in the Adidas Adizero stable is the Evo SL, a training companion to the ultra premium performance racer in the Evo Pro 1.

We first got a taste of the Evo excitement when Adidas sent shockwaves through the running shoe world last fall with the announcement of the first $500 marathon racing shoe. Equally shocking was the weight of the Evo Pro, coming in at an almost-impossible 4.8 ounces. Featuring an uncompressed Lightstrike Pro midsole and featherweight upper, the shoe tore up the marathon race season, setting both the women’s world record along the way on the feet of Tigist Assefa.

The $500 Adidas Adizero Evo Pro 1

Of course, the Evo Pro was never going to be a go-to shoe for the average runner since most of us don’t have an extra mortgage payment lying around just for a pair of marathon shoes. But a $150 trainer that takes some of the design and performance cues from the Evo Pro and materials from the Adios Pro 3? That we can do.

Things get really interesting when we talk about the weight, because the Evo SL is now the lightest training shoe in the entire Adidas line, coming in at a very reasonable 7.9 oz (224 grams) for a US M9 and 6.6 oz. (188 g) for a US W7.5.

A simple engineered mesh upper aims to provide a secure fit and solid breathability, as you would expect, a Continental rubber outsole provides the superior traction found in shoes like the Takumi Sen 10, Boston 12, and Adios Pro 3.

Our First Thoughts

The shoe itself is pretty simplistic, but as a whole, there’s a lot going on. Ever since the Evo Pro debuted, runners were hoping/wondering if some of its technologies and materials would work their way down to some more reasonably priced training models. Adidas heard and they answered with a simple trainer that cuts out all the fat, providing the performance of Lightstrike Pro with design elements of the Evo Pro in an extremely lightweight package.

And yes, while there are different durometers of Lightstrike Pro, and while Adidas is super cagey about exactly what those formulas and compositions exactly are and how they’re employed, it’s generally improved year over year to where, at this point, any shoe with Lightstrike Pro provides a pretty great return on performance. According to Adidas, this version of Lightstrike Pro is the exact same formulation found in the Adios Pro 3. That’s a very good thing, because until this week, that shoe was their top-of-the-line race day shoe (excluding the Evo Pro). 

Of course, without a stiffening agent (i.e. carbon fiber rods), the ride will feel slightly different (see: softer, probably) than the Adios Pro 3. And while you won’t get that same propulsion that came from the EnergyRods, you will still get a boost from the rocker point used in the Evo SL, which is positioned at 60% forward of the heel. 

We had our first run in the shoe this morning and everything on paper seems to translate directly onto foot. Granted, it was a chill three miles in the shoe, but this is a first thoughts, not a full review (coming soon). 

Both Meg and Thomas agreed that the Lightstrike Pro feels great underfoot– light and energetic with a smooth ride. The upper fits well and the on-foot look is obviously great, as you can imagine from the photos in this piece. Potential comparisons are the New Balance Rebel v4 and Asics Novablast, but more dynamic than both. Perhaps a beefed-up Adidas SL 2 and more cushion than the Brooks Hyperion line.

Cons? There seemed to be  some slippage with the tongue, and because it’s a single slab of Lightstrike Pro, it can get a bit unstable in the heel, especially on the cobblestoned sidewalks and streets of Berlin. Of course, we’ll be getting many more miles in the shoe and can provide more thoughts with the next couple weeks.

Simply put, it’s kind of nice to get a simple trainer in a clean package, especially as shoes get more and more complex with carbon fiber plates and rocker geometries and higher and higher stacks,. And at a $150 price point, this one will be pretty hard to beat, in the same way that the $130 SL 2 is by far the best shoe in its price range.

The Adizero Evo SL will cost €150 / $150 and will be widely available from March 2025 with a limited drop starting October 15, 2024 on the adidas flagship app.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Kelvin Kiptum broke the men’s world record in this shoe at the 2023 Chicago Marathon. He was, of course, wearing the Nike Alphafly 3.