Adizero? More like AdiHero!
/Spoiler alert. I love these shoes. A couple of things that I value when evaluating wrestling shoes.
Weight/Stability balance - The balance piece is the most important piece of this. Some people value stability and a feeling of having ankle support, grip, foundational support in the sole. There are things that are valuable in having each of these, but it depends on the person and what they feel most comfortable in. The weight of the shoe is generally a reflection of how the stability is enhanced and what is emphasized with the shoe. Some shoes are super light, but often times the light weight shoe has an opportunity cost of losing out on some stability aspects of the shoe. The Adizero doesn’t have that issue. If it does, then it’s purely a preference piece. They did something cool with this where most of the shoe is mostly mesh, so they didn’t add much weight to the shoe except for the important places and where there are stresses from wrestling. If ankle support is what you’re looking for as well, then you can also find this here. This shoe laces high on the ankle and as a result provides strong support there. If you’d prefer not having ankle support, then simply tie the shoes lower. This shoe has a great balance of weight/stability.
Aesthetics/Looks - Adidas is changing some of their imaging with how they highlight the three stripes. They tend to be displayed at a more aggressive angle and more largely on the side of the shoe. I like this look. This shoe, and the color schemes that they chose for the release, looks awesome. I have the Light Grey, Onyx, and Solar Yellow color scheme which has the two toned soles, with the solar yellow on the front and onyx on the heel. It’s an awesome look. Even the other color schemes have slightly different breakdowns and layouts of the colors. For example they have the Black and Metallic Gold which is for those of us who like a simple scheme, and we have a more traditional Blue or Red options to choose from as well. As far as the aesthetics and looks go, I’m a fan of these layouts. They also have some options with the color blocking for other color releases if they wanted to do that in the future. Options are good!
Grip - This shoe has excellent grip in the front of the shoe, but not by sacrificing too much weight. They went back to the old style grips from the AdiZero London’s, which don’t round out above the toe (which also improves the shoes ability to slide on shots). It also has a strong grip in the heel with that rounded up for those of you who like sit outs and having extra heel grip, you’ll benefit from this. Additionally, the shoe in my first couple wears have maintained their grip and I don’t feel like that’ll change anytime soon.
Comfort - Sometimes wrestling shoes are worn for an hour or so. Other times wrestling shoes are worn for full days and several hours at a time. All day tournaments require shoes that will remain comfortable in casual walking around and paired with the performance levels as well. I wear these shoes to practice, but also often as I work out and sometimes while I work (I work from home in my basement where it’s often cold). These shoes are as comfortable as you could find in a regular walking around shoe.
Point being, this shoe scores nearly a 10/10 in all three of these main categories. I said on the podcast (Bloodround, if that wasn’t clear already), that this is my favorite shoe that I’ve ever worn. I can’t wait to see how it stands the test of time, but I fully expect to see this shoe worn by many of the top College competitors. I always lean into the Combat Speeds as my go to shoes, and I likely always will fall back to those (more updates on the re-release of the Combat Speed 4.0s coming soon), but these shoes are fantastic and I can recommend them to anyone without any hesitation. Promo code Blood20 to get yours for 20% off at adidaswrestling.com.
