It’s only mid-July, but the Adidas Adizero Evo SL might be the best training shoe of the year.
There’s no question that Adidas has been a leader in race-day marathon supershoes in recent years. Its featherweight Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 disrupted the shoe world with its limited availability and $500 price tag two years ago, but so did the fast marathon results it has produced (including a since-broken women’s world record). Adidas followed that up with the long awaited high-performing Adizero Adios Pro 4 ($250), an update of its not-so-skimpy Adizero Adios Pro 3.
But what Adidas lacked for several years was a more affordable version of a lightweight, hyper-responsive half-marathon/marathon training shoe built on a premium midsole. The Adizero Boston 13 isn’t light enough, the Adizero SL 2 isn’t quite fast or energetic enough, and the speedy, low-to-the-ground Takumi Sen, now in its 11th edition, is really geared toward 5K and 10K road racing.
Enter the Adidas Adizero Evo SL ($150), a sleek and speedy everyday trainer that was inspired by the Adizero Pro Evo 1 and shares a similar Lightstrike Pro midsole foam and an identical rocker design.
For almost anyone who has run in it—including me—it’s definitely one of the top shoes of 2025. Why? The bottom line is that it’s everything you need, and nothing you don’t. It’s both a slight throwback to minimally constructed, light and fast racing flats of years gone by, but it’s also a modern marvel of sleek design and a top-tier midsole material and rocker design. It’s a premium shoe for a relatively affordable price.
If you’re looking for a shoe to put a very noticeable spring in your step this summer as you get into fall marathon training, the Adidas Adizero Evo SL is definitely one that’s very high on our list.
What’s New: This is a brand new shoe from Adidas that features a full-length, non-compressed Lightstrike Pro midsole (the same compound used for the Adizero Adios Pro 3) with a forefoot rocker that breaks about 60 percent of the way through the shoe (the same as the Pro Evo 1 racing shoe). It includes a well-cushioned and stable heel counter for optimal comfort and security, and an extremely light and sparse upper that seems to evoke speedy running.
Fit/Feel/Ride: The Adidas Adizero Evo SL fits true to size with a medium interior volume and plenty of wiggle room in the forefoot. It’s only available in a medium width, but it’s slightly more spacious than similar shoes in this category. (It’s not a shoe I’d recommend for inserting an after-market footbed, mostly because it would change the light and flexible vibe of this shoe.) The step-in feel is sparse as many performance training shoes do, but there are no points of discomfort. The heel is lightly padded and secure with a heel sling counter, but one glaring challenge is the lack of a gusset or appropriate stitching to keep the thin tongue in place and optimize the fit.
The vibrant ride of the Adidas Adizero Evo SL is its special sauce. It’s smooth, soft, lightly bouncy, and very energetic. Although this shoe lacks the carbon-fiber Energy Rods of Adidas’ racing shoes, the premium Lightstrike Pro midsole feels infinitely responsive at any pace from all-out fast to recovery jogging efforts. And that’s what makes it a true do-everything everyday trainer.
Price: $150
Approximate Weights: 6.7 oz. (women’s size 8), 7.9 oz. (men’s size 9)
Heel-Toe Offset: 6mm; 38.5mm (heel), 32mm (forefoot)
Why It’s Great: The Adidas Adizero Evo SL is a great shoe because it delivers elite-level performance in a lightweight, no-frills package. It’s ideal for runners who want a fast, light, and responsive shoe for workouts and long runs without dropping $200+ on a carbon-plated racer or even the slightly more expensive Saucony Endorphin Speed 5 ($175). But the beauty of this shoe is that runners of any ability level can enjoy and appreciate it. Plus, it has a sleek design with clean aesthetics and it’s available in a variety of bold colors.
What You’ll Love It: It’s extremely versatile. It’s cushy enough to be a long run shoe, light and bouncy enough to run fast, and flexible enough to accommodate just about any pace. While the stack heights are near-maximal, the shoe’s flexibility and lower forefoot offers really good feel for the ground, which is something I really appreciate for running faster paces.
I have mostly done several tempo runs and spontaneous fartlek runs in this shoe, but I also recently did a track workout of 3 x 400 meters and 3 x 200 meters. No matter the pace or the length of a speedy surge, I am impressed with how easy it is to turn and burn wearing the Adidas Adizero Evo SL shoes. It’s not my first choice for recovery runs (if only because I feel like I should be running faster in it), but it feels soft and smooth with a little bit of bounce at slower paces.
The Adidas Adizero Evo SL could be a half-marathon or marathon racing shoe, but it won’t be nearly as fast or efficient as a higher-priced pair of supershoes with a carbon-fiber propulsion element embedded in the midsole. I’ve done two 10-mile+ runs in this shoe and found it to be ideal for progressive long runs in which you ramp up the pace over the second half of a run or throw in fartlek-like intervals in the middle. Even for slower, even-paced long runs, it helps me keep a rhythm even after fatigue sets in.
Why You Might Not Like It: If you have narrow feet or appreciate a stretchy, snug-fitting upper on your speed training shoes, this shoe might make you snarl. While it’s a great shoe, getting the fit dialed-in for some runners might be challenging. Because of the medium volume interior and less-than-snug upper, I had to torque the laces down more than I wanted to—and ultimately that worked fine without other challenges—but it’s not something I expect from a shoe like this. Also, there’s not a lot of inherent support or stability from this shoe, so if you’re gait gets wobbly at any pace, you might not want to buy this shoe.
Pro: The outsole consists of three die-cut rubber segments (two smaller, stabilizing CL rubber sections under the heel, one larger, very grippy Continental rubber section under the forefoot), each with a matrix of oval holes cut out to save weight. I found the outsole provides consistent traction on dry and wet pavement and concrete without adding excessive weight to the shoe.
Con: The biggest drawbacks to this shoe are the non-gusseted tongue. While the semi-baggy upper seems like a cost-cutting move, the tongue seems almost like an oversight that could have given the fit an A- grade instead of a B.
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Senior editor Brian Metzler has wear-tested more than 2,500 running shoes and is the author of “Kicksology: The Hype, Science, Culture and Cool of Running Shoes” (2019) and “Trail Running Illustrated” (2019). He has raced just about every distance from 100 meters to 100 miles, but he’s most eager to share stories about his experiences pack burro racing in Colorado.
