How a ‘super shoe’ helped Sabastian Sawe smash the two-hour marathon

Runners around the world were left gobsmacked after watching Sabastian Sawe smash the two–hour barrier at the London Marathon yesterday. 

The Kenyan athlete raced around the 26.2–mile course in just 1hr 59 minutes, 30 seconds – more than one minute faster than the previous record.

So, what was the key to Sawe’s success? His shoes.

During the race, Sawe wore adidas’ new ‘super shoe’ – the ADIZERO Adios Pro Evo 3, which is one of the lightest racing shoes ever created.

Weighing just 99g, this is adidas’ first sub–100g running shoe which, despite costing £450, is designed to be worn just once. 

The futuristic footwear’s hidden trick is a stiff carbon-based structure that helps runners move faster by adding a ‘spring-like’ bounce to each stride. 

‘The adidas family is incredibly proud of Sabastian and Tigist’s historic achievements, marking the fastest times humans have ever run in a marathon, said Patrick Nava, General Manager at adidas Running.

‘This is a testament to the years of hard work and dedication they have made, alongside our innovation team, who have built a supershoe which breaks new ground in the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3.’ 

Runners around the world were left gobsmacked after watching Sabastian Sawe smash the two–hour barrier at the London Marathon yesterday

The Kenyan athlete raced around the 26.2–mile course in just 1hr 59 minutes, 30 seconds – more than one minute faster than the previous record. So, what was the key to Sawe’s success? His shoes

The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 was unveiled on 23 April, just days before the London Marathon, and is the cultimation of three years of research. 

While its predecessor, the Evo 2, weighed in at 138g, adidas was able to shave an impressive 39g off the new super shoe.  

‘Our goal was two digits on the scale, with better performance than we’ve ever had,’ explained Stephan Scholten, VP Product at adidas. 

To cut the weight, adidas came up with its lightest foam to date, which it calls Lightstrike Pro Evo foam. 

The foam maximises cushioning, propulsion and energy return, while a carbon–integrated system ensures the shoe remains stiff for stability.

‘This unique interplay of foam and carbon redefines energy return, propulsion and efficiency in a supershoe,’ adidas said.

To cut the weight even further, the company has stripped back almost every component on the surface of the shoe.

It explained: ‘Even the smallest components – from laces to stitching – have been obsessively refined to deliver marginal gains that make the difference on race day.’

The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 was unveiled on 23 April, just days before the London Marathon, and is the cultimation of three years of research

Finally, the base of the shoe – called the outsole – features strategically placed rubber in the forefoot to provide reliable traction at high speeds, without adding too much weight.

‘Creating the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 pushed us to think differently from the very start,’ Mr Nava said.

‘We weren’t just trying to improve on what we’d done before, we wanted to see how far we could go. 

‘We went through more than a dozen iterations, working closely with our athletes and testing everywhere from our labs in Herzogenaurach to high–altitude camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. 

‘At that level, every detail really matters – we were measuring things down to the nearest nanogram. 

‘It was a long process, but it’s led to something we believe genuinely changes what a race–day shoe can feel like.’ 

After breaking the two–hour barrier, Sawe credited ‘the role of innovation’, likely in part in reference to the super shoe.

He said: ‘To break the world record is something I have dreamed about for a long time, and to achieve it means so much to me and to the sport of running.

To cut the weight, adidas came up with its lightest foam to date, which it calls Lightstrike Pro Evo foam

To cut the weight even further, the company has stripped back almost every component on the surface of the shoe

‘It reflects the hard work behind the scenes, the support of my team, and the role of innovation in helping me push beyond limits. I’m honoured to be part of a new chapter for the sport.’

Despite coming in at 39mm in thickness (just below the 40mm limit set by World Athletics for road races), the success of the new shoe is likely to reignite the debate among the running community of ‘technological doping.’

This debate first reared its head in 2016 with the launch of Nike’s £240 Vaporfly shoes. 

During the 2016 Olympic marathon in Rio, all three male medallists wore a prototype of the trainer, with the same technology extended to track races from 2018.

Experts predict the shoe improved the running economy of highly trained runners by four per cent compared to a normal shoe, and improved performance by three per cent. 

‘The same shoe gives you a massive variability among different athletes — even greater than 10 per cent in some cases,’ says Professor Yannis Pitsiladis, of the International Olympic Committee.

‘How you respond to the shoe can determine if you’re going to be an Olympian or watch it on TV.

‘You know who is going to win and who can qualify [for the Games].

‘Athletes have qualified because they had access to a super shoe. And many who were not running in these shoes didn’t qualify.’

How Nike’s £240 Vaporfly sparked the super shoe debate at the 2016 Olympic marathon in Rio

The debate of super shoes isn’t new and first reared its head in 2016, with Nike’s £240 Vaporfly product raising concern among commentators and experts alike.

During the 2016 Olympic marathon in Rio, all three male medallists wore a prototype of the trainer, with the same technology extended to track races from 2018.

The debate of super shoes isn’t new and first reared its head in 2016, with Nike’s £240 Vaporfly product

Now the high–tech trainers, which are lighter and more responsive, are ‘almost ubiquitous on the feet of elite road runners’.

That is according to Jonathan Taylor, a sports researcher at Teesside University, who has branded the revolution in footwear development a ‘technological arms race’.

Experts predicted the shoe improved the running economy of highly trained runners by four per cent compared to a normal shoe, boosting performance by three per cent.

Since 2016 when the Vaporfly was released, the top 50 male marathon runners have improved by about two per cent on average, much of which attributed to the carbon fibre plate.

Similar technology was then transferred into track spikes in 2019 which led to middle– and long–distant records falling.

Regulations were introduced in January 2020 over the sole thickness of track spikes used in sports other than high jump and long jump.

This was due to other companies replicating their carbon–fibre plate and springy foam technology into more spikes for running shoes.

The new regulations require a maximum sole thickness of 20mm for up to 400m races and 25mm for any longer distances.

However, experts say this is far too lenient, suggesting rules should be stricter and to a point where air pods can’t be inserted into the spikes.