The brand-new Adidas running shoes, which Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa wore on Sunday to break the world record for a women’s marathon in Berlin, went on sale on Tuesday. However, the price will undoubtedly dampen the enthusiasm of casual runners.

Since the first running shoes with a thick, shock-absorbing foam and carbon fibre plate enabling athletes run more effectively were produced, Adidas, its larger rival Nike, and other sports firms have been engaged in a “supershoe” war.

The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 retails for $500 each pair, which is $225 more expensive than Nike’s comparable Alphafly 2. This raises the question of how many amateur runners will pay the higher price.

“The price tag is just insane,” said Harry Swinhoe, founder of Grove Lane Runners, an amateur running club in southeast London. “People will flock to it, but I wonder whether the average runner will really feel the benefit of the ultra-supershoe, versus the supershoe, or the normal shoe.”

The shoes are extremely lightweight at 138 grammes (5 ounces), however they are not strong. The cost per mile is almost $19 if, as Adidas claims, athletes must purchase a new pair for each marathon because they are intended to be used for a single 42 km (or 26 mi) marathon-distance race including pre-race warmup.

“This is a shoe optimized for speed, versus durability,” Adidas said. The retailer released just 521 pairs of the shoes on Tuesday, with a second drop planned for November.

Adidas is promoting them as world record breakers, and the company’s CEO, Bjorn Gulden, posted a photo of himself and Assefa holding the sneaker on his Instagram on Tuesday with the message, “Tigist Assefa… we are so proud of you!”

By more than two minutes, Assefa finished in 2 hours, 11 minutes, and 53 seconds, breaking the previous record.

(Adapted from MarketScreener.com)

Categories: Economy & Finance, Strategy, Uncategorized