Meet the £450 Super Shoe Sabastian Sawe just Won the 2026 London Marathon in
A record-breaking run deserves a record-breaking sneaker – here’s what you need to know
Even if you’re not remotely interested in running and the most you’ve ever done is that potato and spoon race back in primary school, chances are you heard what Sabastian Sawe did at the 2026 London Marathon on the weekend. The Kenyan just ran 1:59:30 – the fastest marathon ever recorded in open competition – and he did it in a pair of Adidas.
Unlike Eliud Kipchoge or Kelvin Kiptum or Sir Mo Farah, Sawe is the new kid on the block. In fact, he only really hit the international circuit about three years ago. Now, he’s the lad who’s blown the doors off the biggest barrier left in distance running.
And he didn’t do it in just anything. He did it in the brand new Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3. A sneaker that, at the time of writing, you still can’t even buy properly.
Designed as a pure race day weapon, the Evo 3 was apparently the result of three whole years of obsessive R&D. On paper, it sounds like marginal gains. In reality, it’s the kinda stuff that adds up over two hours of absolute punishment. The midsole stacks up at 39mm in height, pushing right up against the legal limit of 40mm to maximise cushioning and energy return without breaking any rules. The old Energy Rods setup is gone, replaced by a new carbon system – Energyrim – that integrates directly into the midsole. It’s less about stiffness for the sake of it, more about “controlled propulsion”. Translation: it helps you push forward faster without feeling like you’re fighting the shoe.
Oh, and there’s the weight. The Evo 2 – which Sawe wore to win London last year – came in at 138 grams. Back then, Believe in the Run called it the “lightest marathon shoe ever made”. The Evo 3? This baby weighs in at just 97 grams. That’s around 30 per cent lighter with a claimed 1.6 per cent improvement in running economy. That’s not far off a racing flat, but it’s stuffed full of super shoe tech. The same story for the upper: inspired by kitesurfing sails, stripped back to basically nothing, but still stable enough when you’re moving at ridiculous pace.
It’s not just Sawe either. Yomif Kejelcha wore the exact same pair and also dipped under two hours in London. That doesn’t happen by accident.
So, when can you buy the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 ‘Cloud White’? Well, it’s set to land on April 30 at Adidas, the Confirmed app, and select stockists globally. Now, we’re not saying that these will automatically make you run a sub-two marathon. But if you want to smash your PB – or you just want to know what the absolute edge of running tech looks like right now – this is the one, brother.
