Is Adidas’ “Illegal” Running Shoe a Giant Publicity Stunt?

By Tanner Garrity Earlier this month, Ethiopian long-distance runner Derara Hurisa finished the Vienna Marathon in 2:09:22, edging out Kenyan Leonard Langat by three seconds for first place. But a few days later, Hurisa was disqualified. According to race organizers, Hurisa’s shoes “were not compliant with the rules.” He ran in a pair of Adidas Adizero Prime X trainers, which have a sole thickness of 50 millimeters. When World Athletics first started policing so-called super shoes in early 2020 (not long after Nike’s carbon-plated Next% series started toppling marathon records), one of the org…

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