running
What do our tyres on your car or bike and the soles of your trainers have in common? They guarantee the ultimate grip with the ground, no matter how you’re moving forward!
Just like our car and bike tyres, our rubber soles are the result of German engineering, international research and thorough testing. For the past ten years, adidas has relied on our material expertise to keep their shoes grounded, no matter where their journey takes them.
Adidas shoes equipped with our soles provide runners with the grip they need to make every mile count in training and competition. They endure the toughest conditions of the great outdoors and see hikers and mountaineers through any adventure. Whether you’re driving, cycling, pounding the tarmac or scaling rugged mountains, we can take you further.
Join us on a run through of the highs, records and successes of the first decade.
Since adidas and Continental first began working together to create a superior athletic shoe with excellent grip, the collaboration has gone from strength to strength.
Ten years ago, when leading sports equipment manufacturer adidas enlisted our material expertise, their shared goal was to create the best performance shoes possible. The first adidas shoe with our running soles that resulted from the performance-driven partnership was designed for trail running. Many more models have been added to the range since – currently you can choose over 130 different models. But when professional tyre designers join forces with sports shoe experts, the result isn’t only measured in the quantity, but also in the quality of the resulting product – and in records.
‘‘What do the tyres on your car or bike and the soles of your shoes have in common? They ensure safe contact with the ground, no matter how you’re moving forward!’’
Three marathon world records and one Guinness World Record have been set on our soles, plus two Olympic medals have been won with adidas x Continental shoes and Continental tyres. And that’s only the tip of the vertical running slope, the peak of the mountain, the top step on the winners' podium…
We tip our hats to marathon champions Patrick Makau, Wilson Kipsang and Dennis Kimetto, who each set (and broke each other’s) records on our soles, triathletes Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, who won Gold and Silver at the Rio Olympics on Continental soles AND race bike tyres, as well as double Olympic Gold medalist Johannes Rydzek, who ran the world's steepest 50-meter sprint, officially recognized by Guinness World Records, with adidas x Continental shoes.
Their remarkable achievements were enhanced and supported by research marathons, development sprints, testing competitions and scientific breakthroughs behind the scenes. We already had more than a century of experience working with rubber compounds for tyres. Since expanding into rubber soles, our development engineers studied which natural and synthetic rubber compounds would boost an athlete’s performance – regardless of weather conditions, temperature, or the surface they are running on. The resulting soles offer 30 percent more traction, a reduction in slip, and enable competitors to run more efficiently.
About the idea of transferring tyre technology to shoe soles.
By using the same technology as our high-performance tyres our soles give you the grip you need to combat every season on wet or on dry surfaces.
With adidas adizero BOOST and Continental technology you gain more grip than you would with competitor running shoes.
Every year since 2011, a new Marathon World Record in adidas adzero shoes with Continental Traction Compound soles has been achieved.
We know what we do, because we've been in the tyre business for a long time. Over 140 years of tyre technology leads to a new level of traction.
