Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 vs Adizero Prime X 2

The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 is a running shoe with one job: get you to a marathon finish line faster than anything else you own. At 99g it is barely there on your foot, and that sub-100g weight is the whole point. adidas has stripped away everything that does not make you quicker, then leaned on a firm ENERGYRIM perimeter to hold the shape and snap the shoe through toe-off. The result is a pure marathon shoe that feels less like footwear and more like a piece of race kit. It sits at the very top of the market on price, and it is not built to soak up your training miles. We rate it as a specialist race-day tool for runners chasing a personal best who already know their legs can handle a light, aggressive ride. If that is you, few road racing shoes feel this fast. If it is not, the Vaporfly 4 or adidas own Adios Pro 4 give you most of the speed with far more shoe underfoot.

The Adizero Prime X 2 is adidas going deliberately over the top. It is a supermaximal carbon running shoe with a stack so tall it sits above the World Athletics limit, which means it is not legal for record-eligible racing. That is the whole point. Freed from the rules, adidas piled on Lightstrike Pro foam and a set of carbon EnergyRods to build a long-run and marathon-training shoe that returns huge energy with almost no legs cost. You feel launched forward once you are up to pace. At 285g it is heavy for a carbon shoe, and the ride is more cruise missile than nimble racer. If you want a legal marathon racer, the Adios Pro 4 is the sibling to buy. If you want the most protective, most propulsive daily and long-run tool adidas makes, and you do not care about race legality, this is it.