Nike-Adidas: The sneaker war reaches a marathon

The top marathon shoes turned into diamonds. Recent world records by Kelvin Kiptum and Tigist Assefa heighten the ‘war’ between Nike and Adidas. On the market they cost 500 euros and on resale they rise to 2,000. Journalists wear gloves so they don’t get damaged by handling them. They are works of art.

The battle to be the world’s fastest man and woman in the marathon has also unleashed a shoe war between Nike and Adidas, whose commitment to R&D for its flagship product is causing a sporting war that reached its peak with the recent world records of Kelvin Kiptum and Tigist Assefa.

On September 24, in Berlin, the Ethiopian Tigist Assefa gave a real exhibition on the asphalt of the German city.. She dropped the previous world record held by Brigid Kosgei from 2014 by more than two minutes with 2:14:04 and set a new world record with 2:11:53.

Assefa’s feat surpassed Eliud Kipchoge himself, who also won Berlin for the fourth time in a row, although this time without a record, and Most of the attention is focused on his shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1, which weighs only 138 grams.. Its edition, limited to 521 pairs and priced at 500 euros, sold out as soon as it was sold. On the internet, for resale, its price exceeds two thousand euros.

“The shoe has a polished sole, with continental rubber, excellent grip and a compression-free molding process.. The part that is heaviest is the midsole and the rubber is at the main points. This allows light and lower energy consumption. It is designed to get the best results from the athlete on the important day,” declared Angelo Dias, Adidas product expert.

With that victory in Berlin by Tigist Assefa, and the media effect on him when he crossed the finish line and took off his shoes to kiss them, Adidas won the game against Nike. However, the American firm reappeared just two weeks later, on October 8 in Chicago, with Kelvin Kiptum’s stratospheric world record (2h00:35) in the men’s category and Sifan Hassan’s victory in the women’s category.

The Kenyan boy, 23 years old, and the Dutch woman, holder of the European record of 1,500, 5,000, 10,000 and marathon, They ran with the Alphafly 3, a carbon plate shoe whose first design debuted in Tokyo in 2023 and where Nike, so far, has not reported its official characteristics although they maintain the technology of their predecessors to provide a sense of function and help make smooth transitions with each step.

“Adidas sought extreme lightness to save energy. Nike, for its part, made an evolution of the Alphafly, they made it a bit more curved and it seems they evolved the foam. Until now it is considered which is a bit slower than the Vaporfly despite the fact that Kipchoge almost always runs with it. It is more economical and makes each step go further,” stated Javi Moro, material manager for CORREDOR magazine, where “the big change in shoes is, more than the carbon plates, the foams”.

The first Spanish athlete to test the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 was Carlos Mayo, who will wear them in the Valencia Half Marathon on October 22 and in his marathon debut, also in Valencia, on December 3. You will only use them on those two days and on other occasional training days. They have nowhere else to go.

“More than the pressure, I’m lucky to be the only Spaniard who has used them. There’s a lot of expectation around the shoe in the athletics world and a lot of teammates are asking me,” declared Mayo, whose shoe is number 158 of 521, as seen on the silkscreen outside.

That shoe is the particular treasure of Carlos Mayo to the point that the journalists, in order to touch it during a technical conversation, have to wear gloves so that it does not break in the touch of their hands.

The origin of this particular war to try to find the best athletic shoe can be found in 2013.when Adidas launched its Boost model, and later Nike counterattacked with its new models, some of which were very popular thanks to Kipchoge’s achievements.

“This is just the beginning“, they declared from Adidas, while Nike, which usually offers new products in Olympic years, maintains its work in the research and development laboratory for 2024.