Add an edge to your daily foot game with stylish Adidas sneakers that redefine style. Discover everyday shoes designed to complement your lifestyle goals, featuring breathable mesh uppers or running-inspired Adidas Boost midsoles – whether for style or comfort!
Lightstrike Pro foam offers excellent energy return during race days and speedwork sessions; both styles can be found in shoes like the Adidas Stan Smith, which Jay-Z famously mentioned on his Blueprint album, and Celine designer Phoebe Philo wore during her 2017 ready-to-wear show.
Boost technology
Adidas sneakers provide plenty of opportunities for technological exploration. Even its running shoe collection boasts numerous innovations from stretchy Primeknit uppers to 3D-printed midsoles – but one piece stands out – the TicTac-like pellets found within Boost soles.
First introduced in 2013, Boost is an ingenious technology that has quickly become an essential feature of running and casual wearers alike. Created by Adidas Innovation Team and German chemical company BASF, its midsole features thousands of expanded particles that absorb and return energy with each stride, providing cushioning for soft yet responsive cushioning benefits.
Running can tax your feet and legs, but Adidas Boost helps ease the joint strain by absorbing each impact and springing back with energy into forward momentum. This technology has not only helped minimize injury risk but has catapulted them into fashion culture thanks to influencers like Kanye West appreciating new iterations of it.
Adidas first debuted its BOOST technology with its Energy Boost shoe in 2013, quickly becoming so successful that there was a global shortage. Once production resumed, however, BOOST started appearing across their product range, from running shoes like NMDs and basketball-specific EQT Support 93/16s all the way to soccer-focused ACE 16+ Pure Controls – even NMDs made use of its unique foam cushioning for street wearability!
Adidas continues to improve its Boost technology. Their most recent update, Linear Energy Push 2.0 (LEP 2), can be found in both UltraBOOST Uncaged and EQT Support 93/16 Lite models, building on what was first introduced as Linear Energy Push in 1988 and since becoming a hallmark of footwear design by expanding heel support into forefoot area while adding stiffness at toe-off for enhanced energy transfer.
3D-printed midsoles
Carbon, a Silicon Valley-based 3D printer company raising substantial capital from investors such as Sequoia Capital, GV, and Yuri Milner since 2013, created these shoes’ 3D-printed midsoles using 3D printing technology. Their goal is to turn 3D printing into a practical, viable manufacturing process for all sorts of products; unlike traditional printers, which use powdered metals as building material for their prints, Carbon utilizes liquid resin that’s molded layer by layer and then cured by light or oxygen; that explains their strong yet lightweight and soft images!
Adidas is using technology to accelerate the production of these shoes at an incredible pace. According to reports, they claim they can print a single midsole in just two hours — half the time required with traditional methods – enabling lighter, more flexible, and cost-cutting shoes to be produced quickly without incurring significant resource investment for design or mold creation. This process also means more production without incurring too many resources in design or mold-making processes.
Adidas and Carbon have collaborated for some time now, and this 4D shoe designed using their technology is their latest product that utilizes their technology. Aimed at giving runners a unique running experience, Adidas used 17 years of athlete data to design a lattice structure printed in the middle of each shoe which flexes when it presses against your foot to redirect vertical impact forces forward motion with a 15% reduction of peak braking force reported during testing.
Adidas created a running shoe with 3D printing technology that’s ultralight, floating like it was suspended in the air. While expensive for average runners, this represents a big step forward for Adidas and signifies 3D printing as becoming a mainstream product that can be utilized across many fields of activity.
Adidas plans to develop tech that allows for individual in-store fittings shortly; using carbon copies of people’s footprints and an existing foot scan device, shoes would be designed and fitted in-store while customers are still standing up – giving them completely customized shoes suited to their weight, gait, and sport on the spot.
Recycled plastics
The environmental impact of plastic waste has become an issue that’s taken center stage both culturally and fashionably. Still, Adidas is taking action by using recycled plastics in their running shoes and apparel production process.
Adidas and Parley for the Oceans have collaborated to convert marine pollution into high-performance sportswear. Through this partnership, which employs an upcycling supply chain for ocean plastic waste, Adidas is creating shoes and apparel using recycled polyester instead of virgin polyester – an industry standard but far less eco-friendly than cotton or wool fabric alternatives like cotton. By 2024 they expect their carbon footprint will have been reduced by 63%!
Recently, Adidas unveiled an UltraBoost shoe made almost entirely of sea plastic recovered by their ocean team. As these limited-run sneakers had to be earned instead of bought, winners were selected through an Instagram competition in which participants shared videos showing how they planned to reduce single-use plastic use; each pair of these reused 11 plastic bottles.
Adidas plans to increase its use of recycled plastics in future products and has collaborated with G-Star Raw on producing denim apparel and accessories using recycled cotton. In addition, Adidas signed the Climate Protection Charter for Fashion Industry, which commits them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030.
By employing these efforts, the company will have 90% of its footwear contain sustainable materials by 2024. Already they have reduced employee water usage, switched from plastic to paper shopping bags, and begun sourcing only sustainably produced cotton. They have also taken strides in using more plant-based materials like yam-based yeast bio-fabric while cutting synthetic use altogether. Finally, Futurecraft Loop technology represents another step in making shoes more eco-friendly by recycling them without losing quality or function.
End Plastic Waste
Working out can be self-care and eco-care at once, with proper gear enabling both. From reducing plastic pollution to running with shoes made from recycled materials – Adidas is leading the way with its sustainability initiatives, switching out virgin materials for recycled ones, creating products that can be remade, and working more closely with nature for inspiration.
Futurecraft Loop shoe is committed to using recycled plastics for their shoes, clothing, and sportswear production; using at least 75% marine debris collected from the ocean as the material of output; using recycled polyester reduces waste from virgin materials by 20-60% while saving energy, water, and chemicals during manufacturing processes; it will also save energy during energy efficient production practices; eventually, the material can even be broken down and recycled back into new sneakers before being put up for sale – possibly by 2021!
As a company that produces over 400 million pairs of shoes annually, Adidas needs to do more than recycle the materials used in its footwear; it must instead stop paying for new plastic altogether. Therefore, Adidas partnered with Parley for the Oceans to produce shoes made entirely out of the recovered ocean and shoreline plastic – and expects to create 11 million pairs from it this year – nearly double what was built last year!
To produce these shoes, Parley collects plastic from beaches and coastal areas before transporting it to an Adidas processing plant for cleaning and sorting. Unsuitable pieces (such as caps or rings) are sent off for recycling facilities, while any details that can’t be used are turned into fabric that will then be woven into uppers for shoes like the EQT Support Adv Boost and Stan Smith models.
The resultant shoes are incredibly light and comfortable, featuring an outsole made from recycled PET plastic bottles and cork powder, available in multiple colors to complement different workout routines while feeling good knowing that by donning these shoes, you are helping keep plastic out of our oceans and landfills.
