Adidas Adizero

UPDATED w/ current photos!

Love this shoe, best purchase ever! Hopefully I can share some of my experience with you guys. This shoe has been on discount for so long and it's such an incredible pick up for me.

Preface: I'm 5'3 (160cm), 112lbs (51kg), 24M. Puberty failed me, nothing I can do about my petite size.
Dabble in cycling, running, soccer. Love calisthenics, gym work too. Somewhat fit @ ~10% body fat.

I have only ~150km (100miles) on this shoe. Mainly running <3km (<2miles) fast runs. Some 5kms, some 10kms, some 15kms thrown in too.
~50 runs in this shoe.

Stats: Heel - 27mm | Forefoot - 19mm | Midsole drop - 8mm
Lightstrike + Lightstrike Pro
Mesh Upper | Gusseted Tongue
Claimed weight - 231 g (5.5UK)
Measured weight - 215g (6.5UK) F

Let's begin!

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Midsole - Heart of the shoe amirite?
Heel - 27mm | Forefoot - 19mm | Midsole drop - 8mm
Lightstrike + partial Lightstrike Pro in forefoot

This combination of foam actually taught me to avoid heel-striking, because Lightstrike is just so harsh to land on. I'm quite a lightweight runner, which definitely contributes to the foam's compressive properties.

Adapting to landing on my midfoot, the shoe feels incredible*. Following through the gait cycle, I just feel my feet "bounce" off one after another, kinda like cruising through fast paces. Combining Lightstrike with Lightstrike Pro feels good, and makes me want to try Lightstrike Pro by itself.

*The shoe feels incredible, but only at faster paces. This shoe really starts to "bounce" for me at ~4:30min/km (7:15min/mile) or faster. Going faster, 4:10min/km (6:40min/mile) or even faster 3:50min/km (6:10min/mile) is just incredible. My wider strides at faster paces feel so good, the "bounce" is incredible and I feel like I can sustain for a longer period.

However, at slower paces 5:00min/km (8:00min/mile), this shoe's dead. Frigging dead, it just because too hard and harsh to land in. No joke, I feel like I'm just slapping the ground when jogging about.

The bright side about this is, whenever I wear this shoe, it makes me want to run faster and sustain the pace.

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Outsole - Continental rocks. Literal rocks.
Ribbed Continental-branded rubber outsole. Y-shaped Torsion System.

Cycling alot, I'm familiar with Continental rubber. Skidding on the GP5000s a few years back made me avoid this brand ever since, but yea Adidas and Continental have such a strong partnership, especially since they are from the same nation.

The rubber outsole is good. Let me rephrase, it's really really good for road running. Tarmac, pavement, marbled, tiled, metal drain, cobbles. Dry, wet, puddle, pouring rain. Absolutely no slippage at all. Incredible traction, confident strides, great cornering*.

Why is there another * on cornering?
The midsole + outsole + torsion system makes the shoe so stable, especially with such a wide forefoot landing spot. But the stability and stiffness of the shoe doesn't allow the sole to flex alot to corner quickly. Yes, it does get better over time when I adapt to it, but it funnily forces me to take racing lines to avoid excessive ankle flexion lol.

The Y-shaped Torsion System is the little brother of the Torsion Rods that comes in flagship releases of Adidas super shoes. But it's good, still. Through the gait cycle, I feel my feet snap to the ground, then snap up again from my heel.

But oh my, the rocks. The pebbles, the stones that get trapped in the ribs are so annoying. Wherever you think the stones will get trapped in, it really will get trapped in. Then comes the annoying scraping sounds. Plus, the outsole is already very loud when landing your foot. Continuously slapping the ground and scraping sounds makes for an annoying run.

But it's not a problem for me with earphones in.

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Upper - best upper ever. until Strung came out
Adidas Textile mesh upper. Made with at least 50% recycled content.

The shoe box kindly lets you know that your choice in this shoe is . But I don't care, you know why? Because making and buying new things outright contradicts recycling and repurposing efforts. On to the shoe!

I live in a country with perpetual summer. Right smack on the Equator and 30°C+ all year round. This mesh is awesome. Translucent, soft, really airy, good cooling in the hottest of days. Ran in 35°C, no problem. Mesh upper has multiple lacing holes to really custom in your fit, I ended up lacing further to the rear, which I will get on later. But goddam this upper is so breathable, soft enough to conform to my feet for a snug fit.

There's a liner of suede near the toes which is considerably harder and tougher than the mesh. I initially wondered what it was for, until I stubbed my toe jumping a kerb and realised my toe is okay. Other than protecting my toe, it provides a support to create space for the toe box. Really good, which I will come to again on the fit.

But still, this kinda mesh uppers should be compulsory on all shoes. At least until Strung is affordable (cries in $400 local currency of the Strung Prime X).

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Fit - why I chose girl's shoe when I'm a boy.
Slim, racing shoe fit with mid-roomy toebox.

Playing soccer, I realise the importance of snug shoes to avoid slippage and injury. Thanks to the shopkeeper, I managed to try a few sizes in both male and female editions of the Adios 6, and eventually landed on the UK6.5 female.

The fit around midfoot, perfectly snug with the gusseted tongue. Snug heel cup with soft yet stable internal counter. Toebox is okay roomy. Just okay.

This is the fit for me. The guy's version is just a tinge roomy for me around the heel, so I went for the girl's version. But more importantly, this Tokyo Olympics version, the guy's stripes are black while the girl's stripes are these lovely gold.

The heel cup is snug. But to create the snugness, I had to lace up the shoe all the way, to hold my feet down. It's fine, especially since the gusseted tongue has 2 longitudinal padding to prevent you from feeling the laces at all. Good!

Oh and the laces. Flat, cloth laces are the way to go. Never ever loosen on a run yet. It's not stretchy, but that's exactly what I like for faster paces.

Adidas shoes can be kinda pointy. The toebox also squeezes in towards the tip at the end, causing my littlest toe to hit the front of the shoe. There are a few factors in this tho, mainly my lacing technique. So far, changing a few stuff, I still feel this stubbing feeling but only on longer runs. Maybe it's only a problem for me.
But overall, the toebox is still good. You can stretch your toes fine.

For peeps who need arch support, there's perpetually little-to-none arch support. The insole is super minimalist which is inline with the theme of the shoe.

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Overall...

Best purchase ever @ ~78USD. Slim, flat, cheap racer. Super duper bang for the small buck.

Hope you guys enjoyed!

P.S. I'm a metric person, sorry if the imperial values are confusing!

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UPDATED w/ current photos

And then, we come to the most wearable part. The Continental outsole. Ribbed for my pleasure?

From the wear of the midsole, compressive marks of the Lightstrike compared to Lightstrike Pro shows just how much more durable Lightstrike Pro is. I really, really try to adapt to a midfoot strike during my runs too.From the wear of the outsole, the forefoot (black) definitely wears more than the heel (red). And the black part is shedding off??

Suede is supportive for a roomy toe box and excels at collecting dirt.

From 1km to 150km (okay I just checked it's 170km, but no diff), I felt these changes:

1. Shoe is quieter. The first few runs were so loud with every step. It's still loud now, just slightly softer.

2. Foam is softer. This shoe don't need a break in / wear in period. Off the shelf, ready to race definitely. But I still definitely feel a little more mushiness, especially when I heel strike. I'm obviously attributing the Lightstrike foam as a major factor.

3. Heel counter is softer and snugger. Changing up the lacing pattern and all, I made my heel sit into the heel cup well. Over time, the heel foam feels so much better, less firm, but I'm able to lock my foot back snuggier.

Outsole traction is still 10/10 most definitely. In the tropical climate with unexpected rain, this is definitely a confident shoe for me.

Okay well, good luck girls and guys!

Adidas Adizero Adios 6 is on the Adidas US website for $120 in two colorways each for men and women.

Thoughts on whether it's the next shoe for Boston 9 lovers? (I think now Adios 6 is closer to Boston 9 than Boston 10 will be).

Still waiting for the official Boston 10 prices and colorways in the US.

Too good of a price to pass, but the position of the eyelet on the front of the shoes hurt. Only had the problem on the one shoe. (Right shoe)

Didn't think I had bunions until I wore these Pro 3's for the first time. Even without the shoe lace in the eyelet, it still caused enough pain to give me a blister and bruise. So the eyelet had to go. There is a noticeable lump in the shoe, and it just seemed the one eyelet that had the biggest lump caused the most pain.

These are one of the first shoes to give me pain and a blister on the very first run.

I tried on its previous iterations: 6 and 7 and those always felt on the narrow side. But these fit my feet very well, feel very snappy and light when going at faster paces, and is also slightly cushioned in a satisfying way. Definitely a must try if you are in the market something with a lower stack height. I think the Adizero line has been doing so great lately since the Boston 12s also had a huge improvement over the 11s.

I'm definitely slowly transitioning from Nike Pegasus/Brooks Ghost to Adidas Bostons/Adios series now.

Only con is that its a bit pricey. so -1 points from that.

Anyway, just wanted to spread the news so these shoes can get some love.

Code: EXTRASALE for an extra 30% off. Capital One gives an extra 12% back with Adidas too (YMMV).