I Bought The Adidas Hyperboost Edge - my 100% honest review

I've long had a real love affair with Adidas' Energy Boost foam, way back since 2015, 2016, 2017, doing pretty much all of my training in Boston Boost, Adios Boost and my beloved Takumi Sens. The beaded TPU foam was great at putting thousands and thousands of happy Ks through it and it got me through some of my very best races and really pushed my running to the next level. But over the next few years, Nike took over for me with the legendary PEG Turbo and the Vaporfly and the Adidas Boost line just sort of lost its way. So naturally, I was so excited to hear Adidas had been hard at work to create an all-new Boost foam that I couldn't wait for the release. I heard a rumor there was potentially going to be a slightly earlier release in the UK. I logged onto Sports Shoes. There it was, ready to order. I got out my card, paid my money. I've been doing so many of my recent long runs in this shoe. Adidas haven't created a max stack shoe, anything like this before. So it's a brand new entry into a very competitive part of the market. But is it actually any good? What's this new Hyper Boost foam all about? And is it going to be worth you spending your hard-earned money on this shoe? Well, of course, we've got all that and more in today's review. And of course, we're going to be comparing to the biggest rivals in this sector, the Nike Vimeo Plus, the Super Blast 3, and also we'll have a chat about the Evo SL and see how these two shoes compare. So stay tuned for that. Starting out, let's chat all about the facts and figures. Starting out with the purpose of the Hyper Boost Edge. This is your max stack, long run cruising shoe. Not a shoe to run particularly fast in, but a shoe to run a very long way in. Similar shoes out there in the market at the moment, the Super Blast 3, the Vimeo Plus, or the Puma Mag Max. Price-wise, this shoe set me back £170. Well, actually it didn't, because I got it from Sports Shoes and they had it for £180. So £170 on Adidas' website, but you can't buy it from there yet because you've got to go into a draw via their app, and it's all just quite annoying. So I don't know how Sports Shoes had a little batch of early release shoes, but they did. I used my England Athletics discount to get that £180 down to about £153. So it wasn't too bad in the end, but Adidas in the UK and Europe at least, I'm guessing are trying to make you go into the draw to generate even more hype and to sort of beg to buy this shoe. Adidas, please can I buy this shoe? But in America, I think you can just go out and buy it. Anyway, let me know what it's like in your country. Stack out the back of the shoe, 45mm with a 6mm drop overall. Weight-wise, quite nice here, 294 grams for me in my UK size 12. Anything under 300 for me for this type of long run shoe is definitely on the nicer side. Sizing-wise, this one was all good and true to size for me. Got my regular UK size 12. Sometimes I have to go half size up in Adidas shoes, things like the SL2, say to go half a size up. But if you just get your regular size that you've got in your Evo SL or your Boston, you'll be all good with that same size. And unfortunately, there's no wide options at launch. The upper with this shoe, you've got Adidas' all-new prime weave woven upper with these comfort pods at the back of the shoe in the heel cup, a gusseted tongue on both sides. And then you've got these sort of what we call mid-range laces. They're not very good, but they're also not very bad. Not the nice sawtooth ones that we see in like the Evo SL ATR version, which is what I was really hoping for, but really not the awful cheap ones which you used to get in the standard Evo SL. Very rigid around the ankle, not much breathability, but we'll have a chat about that later on. And the tongue is just a little bit short as well, but it didn't prove to be a problem. And the lacing system is quite peculiar as well. If you want to do a runner's knot, there's these extra eyelets, but you have to sort of thread the laces through on the inside of the shoe. Not something I've ever seen like that before, but it works. Midsole wise, this is where the shoe really comes to life. This new Hyperboost Pro Foam. This is a new foam compound for Adidas, an expanded bees peba compound. There's no plates in the shoe and there's also no rods. And then finally, outsole wise, we've got light traction on the outsole here. No continental rubber with this one. It's still a very grippy compound and you're getting full outsole coverage as well. As far as we can tell at launch, it just comes in this one colorway, but we've paired it with some of our all new running and we've also got a new range of racing socks as well, available on benparks.com. Perfect for your races coming up in the near future. You get a bundle of three for £30 delivered in the UK. And we do ship all around the world. Help support the channel, help these reviews keep coming as well. Feel free to use code U210 for 10% off your order. Right, let's get stuck into my likes. Starting out with my first like here and it's all about this new midsole, the new Hyperboost Pro midsole. The new foam here is really good. It's got the perfect amount of firmness for your long run. It's not too firm, but it's also not too soft and mushy. It really helps with those long runs to absorb all that impact and look after your legs. It also provides a surprisingly stable ride for such a high stack shoe, whilst also offering some pretty good energy return. A really great cruiser of a shoe, this one. A good cushioning to weight ratio. It's a lot lighter than it looks as well. My second like here, all about the grip. Adidas are pretty solid with their outsoles over the years and this one is absolutely no different. That full outsole of light traction rubber is really good. The high stack nature of the shoe naturally means you might be a bit concerned in the corners, potentially rolling an ankle, but the foam here is firm enough not to worry about that. Good amount of stability as well and then the traction on the bottom of the shoe just means you've got a good amount of confidence in the corners. Thirdly, the durability with this one, I think this is going to be all good. I'm around 80k into this shoe at the moment and it's holding up really well. I feel like this shoe will definitely be good for around about 500 plus miles of use. Right, moving on, as we always say here on the channel, because we buy these shoes 100% with our own money, we can now move on to have a chat all about the dislikes. The first one being the upper on the shoe I think is really a big disappointment for me. Unfortunately, the main material they've used means the breathability with this one is really not going to be very good in those warmer months. There's just not much ventilation really getting into the shoe. I really couldn't feel any amount of airflow as I run along. If you are running in some warmer climates, potentially have some overheating issues in other shoes, this one could be potentially a little bit poor for you as well. The upper just doesn't have much give in it either, so it could well be an issue if you have some wider feet because there are no wider options with this one. The toe box amount of room in this isn't too bad, it does taper a little bit at the front, but as I say the upper material is fairly rigid and doesn't have much give in it. Second dislike with this one, overall I'm just really not a fan of the heel cup at the back of the shoe, especially if you are a heel striker, you may well get some irritation on the sides with your ankle. It's pretty stiff and quite a firm structure on the in particular. It just sort of my heel would dig into it as I walked around. I'm a midfoot striker, so it was fine when I was running, but when you're walking around striking at the back of the shoe, heel striking as you walk, I just felt it sort of digging in and when you add into that if you're a heel striker when you're running, I just think some people are going to get a bit of irritation at the back of the shoe here. Up on the screen now is me just comparing it to the Superblast 3, which you see is just a lot softer and gives me absolutely no issues however I strike the ground in that shoe. Yeah, just a little bit firm at the back of the shoe, a bit of an odd one, just don't really love this material. And then my third and final dislike with this one, it's just got that very late rocket at the front of the shoe. I just felt I just couldn't get any sort of smooth momentum going. At the back of the shoe, there's really not much of a heel bevel at the back of the shoe, so again if you're a heel striker, I just don't think it's going to give you the smoothest ride. It just never felt comfortable for me at my faster paces, trying to do some strides, those 5k, 10k paces, it was just very sort of blocky and sort of a bit brick-like for me. But at more steady paces, easy run paces, marathon paces, it felt not too bad. That's what the shoe's designed for, so cruising along those paces. So anywhere for me between like four minutes a k, up to around about 4.45 a k, that just felt really nice and cruisy and got a good amount of responsiveness from it. Right, let's move on to chat about some alternatives to the Adidas Hyperboost Edge, starting out with the Nike Vomero Plus. Coming at £15 cheaper, it's got exactly the same stack height, 4mm more drop, but it is most significantly 65g heavier for me in my sizes. The weight difference here is going to be quite noticeable, but the Vomero is a much more comfortable shoe for me. Both shoes very much in that long run cruiser category. They're not really designed for all out speeds, so fairly similar in the speed department. Breathability, a little bit better with Nike, but neither of these shoes are particularly fantastic on the breathability stakes. Stability, a little bit better with the Adidas. The Nike shoe feels softer. For me, I'm always going to be picking the Nike between the two. Moving on to have a chat about the all new Superblast version 3, £30 more expensive here, 1.5mm more stack at the back, 2mm more drop, and most significantly here, 18g lighter than the Adidas shoe. The Superblast has that dual layer midsole, a little bit more soft and responsive with the FF LeapFoam on top, and then just below that, we've got the FF Blast Plus for a little bit of extra stability, and it's now a lot softer than the outgoing Superblast version 2. I'm nearly at 100 miles in the Superblast version 3 at the moment, so get subscribed. That big update video will be coming along very soon. The Superblast will definitely feel a lot softer than the Adidas, but with that softness comes some stability concerns in the corners. But for me, the Superblast really does win in every department. The upper is a lot better with that one, it's just a more comfortable upper, it feels a much faster shoe, it's a bit more responsive, it's a bit poppier, and it's just for me a lot more versatile as well. I feel I've got a lot more range of paces on offer in the Superblast 3, whereas this one, I'd say it's just a bit of that long run cruiser type shoe. Moving on to finally have a chat about the Evo SL, which is not a direct competitor to this shoe, it's got a slightly different purpose, but so many of you will ask me, well what are the big differences between the two? The Evo SL is a lot softer, it's got a much more bouncy ride, it's really designed to be much more responsive at those faster speeds, it's always going to have some stability concerns with just how soft that light stripe profoam is. Whereas the Hyperboost Edge is designed for cruising along at long distances, it's got a lot more protection in this one to look after your legs over the course of the long run. You're going to be able to absorb the miles a lot better in the Hyperboost, it's going to be far more stable as well, but it just does not have that turn of speed that something like the Evo SL will give you. Grip is really good on both these shoes, breathability is definitely a little bit better on the Evo SL, durability is going to be better on the Hyperboost Edge. If I'm in marathon training and I need a shoe to go out there and do some solid long runs, the Hyperboost is going to be the better shoe of the two, but for me I definitely prefer the Evo SL. Right, let's move on to have a chat of my conclusions and final thoughts of the Adidas Hyperboost Edge. It's really great to see Adidas joining this very competitive marketplace of these max stack super trainers. The Superblast really has been reigning supreme there for so long now, and for this it's a good solid first effort, but for me there's quite a few misses with this one. There's a lot of other shoes I would definitely be choosing to pick to go out on my long runs in. If you're a big Adidas fan and a midfoot or forefoot striker, then certainly shortlist this shoe. It's stable, very durable, and it's going to support you pretty well out there on those long runs, but the upper is really not working for me, so this is definitely going to go on the sell pile. For me it's 80 kilometers done and out. So that's it guys. Hope you enjoyed the video. Let me know your thoughts about this shoe down in the comments. Help out the running community. Let's get a really good vibe going on down there. The next video up here is the review of the Superblast 3. Go and check out that video, and also one that YouTube's recommending, which you might like just down there. So that's it guys. Keep on working hard. Keep on getting done. I'll see you very soon in the next one.