The 10 Best Adidas Running Sneakers of All Time

Ever since Adolf “Adi” Dassler began to create his own athletic footwear from his mother’s kitchen in Herzogenaurach following his return from World War I, running shoes have been intrinsically linked to the DNA of “the brand with the three stripes.”

Through the phenomenal success of one of the first Adidas athletes, U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens, at the 1936 Summer Olympics, Adidas was flung onto the world stage as the trusted brand for runners on both track and road. Owens’ haul of four gold medals at the games created a worldwide phenomenon and resulted in Adidas selling over 200,000 pairs of shoes every year before the outbreak of World War II.

In the intervening 80 years, the brand has maintained its reputation at the pinnacle of athletic footwear, producing sneakers for the world’s finest sportsmen and casual runners alike. To this day, through lifestyle interpretations of technical footwear such as the Yeezy Boost and NMD offerings, Adidas spans the worlds of sport and style adeptly.

With the introduction of Boost technology and its many incarnations, the recent introduction of AlphaBOUNCE to the market, and other high-performance footwear available to the world’s elite athletes this summer in Rio, Adidas has reinforced its place at the top of the pile.

Here, we run down Adidas’ 10 finest contributions to the world of running shoes, all maintaining the high standards and aesthetic that were set out in Mrs. Dassler’s kitchen all those years ago.

Introduced in 1982, at the height of America’s obsession with jogging, the Adidas Oregon incorporated utilitarian technology developed by track coach (and Bill Bowman protégé) Bill Dellinger into a classic Adidas aesthetic to create the first of a series of shoes named after U.S. cities. The Dellinger Web, an eye-catching and performance-enhancing reinforcement of the shoe’s midsole, would go on to be replicated across Adidas lifestyle and performance products in the years to come, but would remain synonymous with the original Oregon release to runners worldwide.

Re-issued and rejuvenated in recent years, Adidas’ Tubular silhouette started life as yet another of the brand’s high-performance running shoes. Unveiled in 1993, the Tubular allowed the wearer to alter the cushioning in the heel with a hand-held pump. Featuring a Vibrastop outsole and groundbreaking LCD display built into the insole, the futuristic silhouette introduced Adidas runners to the idea of customizing their running experience.

Developed in 2013 by a laboratory at German chemical goliath BASF, Boost technology began life as an aid for the most serious of serious runners. Soon commandeered by Herzogenaurach, the Boost foam, comprised of micro-EVA foam cells that absorb and recycle impact, was applied to the Adidas Energy Boost. The sleek, modern silhouette was made up of a supportive, flexible Tech-Fit upper and the Boost sole that would go on to become synonymous with the three stripes in the coming years.

At the height of its success, the Adidas Equipment division was the world’s premier brand for high-performance sports product. While the brand has since restructured, and Adidas Running is now the banner under which such products sit, the output of Adidas Equipment is remembered as both iconic and groundbreaking to this day. Originally released in 1992, the Adidas EQT Guidance provided runners with extra support through a full-impact Torsion sole unit, and maintained the distinctive three stripes through the innovative incorporation of lace-stays. Re-released to great effect in recent years as a lifestyle shoe, the EQT Guidance dominated in the early 1990s in a variety of sough-after colorways.

Released in 1989 and equipped with an eye-catching Aqua colorway, the adidas ZX 8000 featured the innovative Torsion technology in the sole. Released as a direct competitor to Nike's Air Max series, the ZX 8000 was designed so that it could be worn without a sock and would go on to inspire the ultra-popular ZX Flux series in later years.

In 1984, having a computer was a massive, massive thing. To have a computer built into your running shoes was something else entirely. The Adidas Micro Pacer, with its space-age colorway and high-performance aesthetic, allowed runners to do just that by incorporating a step-counter into its tongue. The shoe would become synonymous with an era in which Adidas pushed boundaries and attempted to provide runners with technology far beyond the capability of its competitors.

Unveiled in 2014, the Adidas Pure Boost managed to fuse commitment to innovative athletic footwear with stylish aesthetic in a way that only Adidas can manage. Featuring the now-celebrated Boost sole with an upper of TIRRENINA suede and four-way stretch material, the silhouette was readymade for alteration and collaboration with the fashion world. The high-performance runner has since been adapted by Yohji Yamamoto’s Y-3 line, Adidas Skateboarding, and equipped with a unique floating arch for the women’s market.

The first of the now legendary ZX series, the Adidas ZX 500 was unleashed onto the market just in time for the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. Crafted of a nylon mesh, with key suede reinforcement and the all-important Ghillie lacing system, the ZX 500 reinvented the running shoe game forever and launched a series of footwear that is still a vital component of the German brand’s output in 2016.

Originally released in a version that incorporated Adidas' super lightweight adiZero technology, and more recently updated with Boost, the Adidas Adios silhouette is one of the most successful running shoes of all time. Responsible for countless broken records and some of the fastest marathon times in history, and constantly evolving, the Adios is the perfect example of Adidas' ongoing commitment to athlete-led innovation in footwear.

Perhaps the most celebrated and iconic running shoe of the modern era, the Adidas Ultra Boost has come to define performance for the modern runner. Incorporating the groundbreaking boost technology first exhibited on the brand’s Energy Boost, the Ultra Boost was voted the “sneaker of 2015” and its comfortable Primeknit upper has allowed it to become a favorite of everyone from the world’s elite runners to Kanye West. The chief designer behind the shoe heralded it as “The best of what we can do” back in 2014, and it is yet to be rivaled.