A look at the super shoes from Adidas, Asics, and On that competed with Nike on the sport’s biggest stage.
We’ve come a long way since Nike ruled the pavement in big city marathons. Seemingly every brand has a super shoe and the runners who can contend for podium places. In fact, we scoped out the feet of the top runners at this year’s Boston Marathon and found that only two of the top 10 men were wearing the Swoosh. The women fared better, with four lacing up the new Vaporfly 3.
But the day belonged to Adidas: the top four men were all flashing three stripes, and three of the top 10 women wore the same Adios Pro 3 shoes. There were some other surprises among the best running shoes. Read on to find out who else got into the top placings this year.
Top Men at the 2023 Boston Marathon
1st — Evans Chebet, 2:05:54
Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “solar red”
Evans Chebet claimed his second consecutive Boston win in a flashy orange pair.
2nd — Gabriel Geay, 2:06:04
Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”
3rd — Benson Kipruto, 2:06:06
Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”
4th — Albert Korir, 2:08:01
Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”
5th — Zouhair Talbi, 2:08:35
Asics Metaspeed Sky+
Test editor Morgan Petruny reviewed this speedster when it came out.
6th — Eliud Kipchoge, 2:09:23
Nike Alphafly 2
Nike told us “Eliud is wearing items from the upcoming Eliud Kipchoge Collection, coming this fall.” Until then, you’ll have to settle for the standard color of the shoe.
7th — Scott Fauble, 2:09:44
Nike Alphafly 3 prototype
We’ve seen this shoe pop up in other races lately, including the Tokyo Marathon. And, although it’s a prototype, it’s likely the “development” shoe that’s on World Athletics’ list of approved shoes—under Manuals & Guidelines, “Dev 163” is approved until December 3, 2023. No information about the shoe’s availability has been provided yet so, for now, you’re stuck with the Alphafly 2.
8th — Hassan Chahdi, 2:09:46
Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “solar red”
9 — John Korir, 2:10:04
Asics Metaspeed Sky+
10 — Matthew McDonald, 2:10:17
Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”
Top Women at the 2023 Boston Marathon
1st — Hellen Obiri, 2:21:38
On CloudTri 1
It seems Obiri won the Boston Marathon in a shoe built for triathletes. This looks to be the same shoe that caused a dustup earlier this year in a tri race. The CloudTri is included on the World Athletics list of approved shoes for road races. So, too, is the Cloudboom Echo 3.0, the company’s first true super shoe for long road races, which Obiri wore at the New York City Marathon last fall.
(I ran a few kilometres in Cloudboom on Sunday during Boston Marathon weekend during a shakeout jog with On, but it won’t be available until July.)
2nd — Amane Beriso, 2:21:50
Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”
3rd — Lonah Salpeter, 2:21:57
Nike Vaporfly 3
Salpeter rocketed to the finish on Boylston wearing Nike’s just-released top end racer. I recently reviewed that shoe at length.
4th — Ababel Yeshaneh, 2:22:00
Nike Vaporfly 3
5th — Emma Bates, 2:22:10
Asics Metaspeed prototype
At a glance, this might look like the garden variety Metaspeed Sky+ we saw on other top finishers. But look more closely at the right shoe’s heel. See the light blue smudge on the foam? It looks like the “BOSTON 127” stamp we saw on other prototype shoes, perhaps identifying them as having been inspected and approved for use. The detailing of the sidewall also looks different from any of the other Metaspeed shoes Asics has previously released.
Which model is it? We’ve reached out to Asics to see if they’ll share any more details, but the company has three “development” shoes approved by World Athletics.
6th — Nazret Weldu, 2:23:25
Xtep 160X 2.0
Weldu took sixth in a pink pair of shoes from Xtep, a brand from China that we don’t see here in the U.S. The shoe has a blue stamp on the right heel, indicating it’s a development pair, but the 160X 2.0 has been available for purchase globally.
7th — Angela Tanui, 2:24:12
Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”
8th — Hiwot Gebremaryam, 2:24:30
Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”
9th — Mary Ngugi, 2:24:33
Nike Vaporfly 3
2nd American (11th) — Aliphine Tuliamuk, 2:24:37
Hoka Rocket X 2
Second American woman, Aliphine wore Hoka’s just-released super shoe—the Rocket we’ve long been waiting for. Amanda Furrer reviewed the Rocket X 2 last month.
10th — Gotytom Gebreslase, 2:24:34
Nike Vaporfly 3
Written by Jeff Dengate
