Adidas Announces Pro Evo 3 Super Shoe Weighing Less Than 100 Grams

The first two iterations of Adidas’ Adizero Adios Pro Evo super shoe franchise have astonished for their incredible low impact on scales — and the third is now blowing them both away.

Released in 2003 and 2025, respectively, the Pro Evo 1 and 2 both came in at 138 grams for a men’s size 9.5, with the latter managing to pack in a greater amount of highly responsive foam without adding any weight. Adidas is bringing the series forward with a remarkable 30 percent weight reduction, resulting in the brand’s first running shoe to go sub-100 grams and the lightest-ever race-legal model in the industry.

The Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, which will debut on the feet of elite runners Sunday at the London Marathon, weighs a paltry 97 grams for a men’s size 9.5 and improves running economy by 1.6 percent compared to the Pro Evo 2. Most of the reduction comes via a new Lightstrike Pro Evo foam compound that’s 50 percent lighter than its predecessors, and designers took inspiration from kitesurfing sails to create a feathery woven upper.

“When you think you’ve reached the limit, you actually haven’t. There’s always more you can achieve,” Charlotte Heidmann, Adidas category director for Adizero, told Footwear News. “When we introduced the Pro Evo 1, 138 grams was exceptional, and now we’ve reduced it even more. It’s just me talking here today, but collaboration helps to achieve things you didn’t think were possible some years ago.”

Since its launch in August, the Asics Metaspeed Ray held the title of lightest running shoe on the market at 129 grams for a men’s size 9. Li-Ning has gone even lighter with the Dragonflight at 103 grams for a men’s size 11, but the 2023 concept shoe hasn’t gone into production.

Nike’s Alphafly series is the bestselling in the category and considered the standard for super shoes. The Alphafly 3 has been on the market for two years and weighs more than twice as much as the Pro Evo 3 at 218 grams for a men’s size 10.

Adidas’ “Energy Rods” carbon fiber plate already tended to be more sparse than its competitors with a fork shape leaving ample negative space. The interior of that shape has been whittled away further for a new “U” shape referred to as an “EnergyRim” running only along the edges between two layers of foam and now visible from the exterior. Research found that these regions were the only place where the propulsive effect of a plate was truly necessary, and the carbon fiber has been a peaked dimension in order to counteract the fragility of the material.

Despite carrying less aggressive lines, the midsole is cut into a rocker shape at the same placement to encourage progression through steps. Supporting elements around the collar also remain the same, but additional change does come through a Continental outsole with different mapping and a thinner profile that is nonetheless said to handle slick conditions better than before.

The Pro Evo series hasn’t been produced at nearly the same volume as Adidas’ other super franchise, which features the same name sans “Evo,” and each iteration through the third has been priced at $500.

Despite the high cost, Adidas still sells the shoes at a loss. World Athletics’ requirements for race eligibility include the provision that a shoe must be purchasable by consumers, and the attention that Pro Evos generate can make up for the lack of a direct profit.

In the six 2025 World Marathon Majors, seven of the 12 winners in the men’s and women’s races wore Adidas shoes, all but one in the Pro Evo 2. With two of the other winning places, On was the only other brand to have more than one of its runners in a winning position for the year.

The Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 will release April 23 through a drawing on Adidas’ website before a wider release in the fall.