Adidas Just Added Its Record-Breaking Running Tech to a Surprising Shoe

Lightstrike Pro is one of the quickest foams in the world. It’s what Adidas puts in all of its top-of-the-line running shoes, such as the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 worn by Tigist Assefa when she ran a record-shattering time of 2:11:53 at the 2023 Berlin Marathon (the fastest ever by a woman by nearly two minutes).

So what’s it doing in a pair of soccer cleats?

Trickle-down innovation

After a nine-year hiatus, the beloved F50 returns, usurping the X as Adidas’s premiere speed boot line for soccer players across the globe. However, one variant in particular, the F50+, deserves a closer look whether you play the beautiful game or not.

Adidas

Adidas F50+ Firm Ground

• $300 at Dick's Sporting Goods

That’s because, unlike the rest of the lineup, the F50+ features Adidas’s premiere running-shoe technology, Lightstrike Pro. The foam is sandwiched between two plates in the form of an insert located near the front of the shoe like a track spike.

Adidas

“From Adidas’s point of view, this is our first football super shoe,” the company’s footwear development director Harry Miles told Dezeen. (In this case, football means soccer.)

The goal with the cleats is to give players “a first gear,” Miles went on. “If you look at the trajectory that football boots have had, they all look the same. We didn’t have a great deal of innovation, at least visible and radical innovation. And we wanted to put that into the [F50+].”

Though the shoe marks the first time Adidas’s has featured the foam in anything but a running silhouette, their placement in the F50+ does make sense for soccer players seeking a bump in acceleration on the pitch.

Adidas

Olympic hopeful Noah Lyles, who calls himself “the fastest man in the world” as the reigning world champion in both the 100 and 200 meters, wears the Adizero Prime SP2. Those shoes feature Lightstrike Pro in a similar geometry and have helped propel Lyles to a personal best of 9.81 in the 100 meters, set in London in July 20, 2024.

Built for the long haul?

It will be interesting to see how the foam reacts longterm to the stresses of a 90-minute soccer game, let alone the better part of a season.

The $500 Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 has a famously short lifespan, lasting a single marathon and change. However, much of its fragility may come down to a minimal outsole design that forgoes traditional lugs in favor of reduced weight.

Adidas

Regardless, the F50+ won’t be the last example of super-shoe technology trickling into other sports from running. In fact, other brands have already help lay some of the groundwork.

Last year, for example, Nike equipped its G.T. Cut 3 basketball shoe with ZoomX foam, which makes up the midsole on its fastest running shoes, such as the Alphafly and upcoming Pegasus Plus.

Nike

The F50+ is available now for $300, making it the most expensive pair of soccer cleats in Adidas’s arsenal. Sold out on the brand’s website, the F50+ is still in stock at retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Adidas

Adidas F50+ Firm Ground

• $300 at Dick's Sporting Goods

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