It’s been a fair bit of time since I did a shoe review. It’s not that I haven’t run in shoes I really liked and some I really hated, it’s just I wasn’t up for reviewing them or writing a blog post about them. I now have a few shoes I’m going to be writing about.
First up is the Adidas SuperNova. Out of the 8-10 shoes in my rotation I’m really enjoying my runs in this shoe. My SuperNova’s have 10 runs on them and most of those runs have been over 80 minutes long. This shoe makes me want to run and run far in them.
The Supernova is a neutral cushioned trainer with their Boost material which is a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The shoe has 10mm of drop. Adidas doesn’t list the drop on their website and this is what I found online when I searched. It has an engineered one piece mesh upper and toe box with lateral support provided by the Adidas stripes and lacing system. The toe box has a small toe bumper internal to the shoe. I can not feel this toe bumper when I stick my foot into the shoe and I’ve got some pretty long 2nd & 3rd toes. This toe box also nicely accommodates my wider than normal forefoot. Unlike many other shoes, so far there is no apparent strain on the upper material at the widest point of my foot and I’m near 100 miles on these shoes. The laces can be double knotted even with my high volume feet. This is often a challenge in many shoes. The struggle is real folks, it’s the curse of high volume feet. In fact this is the most comfortable shoe in the forefoot area I currently have in rotation. There is a heel counter on the outside of this shoe as well and a high Achilles tab with a significant notch that does not bother me when I run. The tread of the shoe is Continental rubber in what Adidas calls their stretch web pattern. I’ve managed to run in the rain more than once with this shoe. The tread provides fine wet weather traction. The only time I noticed any slippage was when I landed with my foot on a 12 inch wide metal expansion joint. Most of the shoes I’ve gotten to wear in the rain this year have slipped on the few expansion joints I’ve run across. You think by now I’d have learned to not step on them (shrugs shoulders). They run equally well on pavement or groomed trails and handle the off road sections that have sand, pebbles and rocks of various sizes rather easily.
One of the unique things about the Adidas Boost material is a demonstrated decreased in Vo2 and RER (respiratory exchange ratio) when compared to Saucony Pro Grid Guide1 and the Adidas Energy Boost 2 compared to the Newton Kismet, Hoka Bondi’s, Asics DS Trainer 17 and some other ~ 10oz running shoes2. In this second bit of research the Adidas were ~ 2L/kg/min better than the other shoes. The Hoka Bondi’s were the worst of the group. Recently we’ve seen Saucony come out with their EverRun material and New Balance come out with their Fresh Foam material. We don’t know yet if these will increase running economy like the Adidas Boost material. This may be a reason why so many of the recent men’s World Records and fastest times in the marathon have been set in Adidas Boost shoes.
How does this shoe run? The answer is great! It’s a run all day type of shoe with no numbness or hot spots. My legs do not feel beat up even after back to back 12 mile days in these shoes. This shoe is now my go to shoe for all my long runs. Out of the 10 runs I have on this shoe, seven of them have been longer than 80 minutes and four of those have been between 1:40-1:55. My other runs have been right at an hour. By far these are the best shoes I currently have in my rotation for long runs and easily handle my 7.3 and 7.8 mile loops. In the past I had a pair of shoes just for long runs. The SuperNova’s also get to handle multiple runs per week. These shoes are that good, I want to keep running when I run in them.
Two years ago I received a pair of Adidas Boost Sequence for winning a triathlon. I liked but didn’t love those shoes. They weren’t the right Adidas shoe for me. But I liked them enough to try a pair of Adidas Boston Boost shoes this past summer. I liked those shoes and they became my interval shoe & racing shoes for triathlons last season. I couldn’t say I was sold on Adidas shoes until I was convinced to try on the Adidas SuperNova. Now I want to try some other Adidas shoes and see if I love them as much as the SuperNovas. If the shoes are all as good as this, Adidas could supplant Asics as my go to shoe brand.
I’d like to once again give a big shout out to The Running Shop (@therunningshopaz on Instragram) for helping me with shoes to review. if you’re ever in Tucson, stop by the shop and say hi to the friendly staff.
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Influence of footwear designed to boost energy return on running economy in comparison to a conventional running shoe. Sinclair, J., Mcgrath, R., Brook, O., Taylor, P., & Dillon, S. (2015). Journal of Sports Sciences, 1-5 DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2015.1088961
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