When adidas unveiled the EVO SL in fall 2024, it shared the stage with a flashier sibling: the Adizero Adios Pro 4. The Pro 4 is a full carbon-plated race-day weapon that is 11 percent lighter. The Pro 4 had the spec sheet. The adidas EVO SL had something harder to engineer: mass appeal.
Fast-forward to today, and it’s the EVO SL that’s making history. During adidas’ fiscal 2025 earnings call, CEO Bjørn Gulden announced that the shoe is approaching 10 million pairs sold. That number demands attention.
Designed for hard workouts rather than race day, the EVO SL was never meant to be a crossover phenomenon. Yet it has become one. Runners love it because it can handle the full range of weekly training, including daily miles, tempo sessions, and intervals. Most shoes in this category require you to specialize. The EVO SL doesn’t.
Lia Porcelli, an avid runner, the co-founder of the creative agency Mutual Friends, and a former Nike marketing staffer, wants to run a marathon in them.
“I’m obsessed with them,” she told Footwear News. “They have enough structure, yet they’re one of the lightest shoes I’ve ever had. I feel like I can do anything in them.”
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This sentiment has surfaced everywhere, from specialty running stores to lifestyle boutiques. The EVO SL has attracted both serious athletes and people who simply want a stylish, comfortable shoe. Retailers such as Kith, Slam Jam, Brooklyn Running Co., and Heartbreak Hill Running Company carry it, indicating that the shoe appeals to diverse audiences.
At Heartbreak Hill, co-founder Justin Burdon credits adidas with doing the marketing work that brought lifestyle shoppers through the door.
“It was almost like they were looking to the competition and trying to design against what was working in the marketplace,” Burdon said. “It’s kind of a whole new concept.“
adidas didn’t invent the super trainer category. However, the company priced the EVO SL at $150, which is well below competing non-plated models, such as the ASICS Superblast 3, priced at $210, and the PUMA Mag Max Nitro, priced at $180. Accessibility opened the door. The design kept people in.
“It’s a very distinctive look,” said Matt Powell, senior advisor at BCE Consulting and longtime athletic footwear analyst. “It doesn’t look like anybody else’s shoe out there.”
adidas has also been smart about extending the line. The EVO SL Woven features a woven upper and gusseted tongue. The EVO SL ATR features weather-resistant materials and light lugging for off-road days. The newest addition, the EVO SL Exo, features a taped exoskeleton for a better hold and bolder color blocking. Powell sees this expansion as essential.
“If you think about the Samba, it’s the variations that have kept that shoe alive,” he said. “The core shoe doesn’t have nearly the same appeal, but the Mary Janes, sneakerinas, floral materials, animal hides, and so on, those are what’ve kept the Samba alive. If you create other variations, you give people a reason to put a second pair in their closet, even if it’s pink.”
Collaborators have added cultural weight: Pharrell, digital sneaker archivist Hartcopy, and the up-and-coming running brand Hermanos Koumori have all left their mark on the design, lending it credibility across communities.
There’s a broader context here, too. Before the EVO SL, adidas’s last significant running shoe was the original Ultraboost in 2015. Now, the brand is following up with the Hyperboost Edge, a maximum-cushioned super trainer built around a new supercritical foam. Patrick Nava, the general manager of running at adidas, described the idea behind it: “With the EVO SL, we asked, ‘What if we took out the stiffening element, lowered the stack height, and tried to build a super trainer?’ That’s how we started playing with the Hyperboost idea.”
Seven of the twelve winners of the World Major Marathons in 2025 ran in adidas shoes. The EVO SL gave the brand a foothold with everyday runners. If the Hyperboost Edge is as successful, adidas will have more than just a hit shoe. They will have rebuilt a running franchise.