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Adolf “Adi” Dassler had one mission when he founded adidas in 1949: provide athletes with the best possible equipment. Over the last seventy-four years, Dassler’s goal has remained integral to the sportswear giant’s performance innovation, economic success, and cultural relevance, with the most recent development rooted in Dassler’s original mission arriving in 2013 with the launch of BOOST.
Debuted via the adidas Running line, BOOST pushed the boundaries of responsive, energy-returning cushioning solutions within the world of performance running. A product of the adidas Innovation Team (AIT) and German chemists, BASF, BOOST offered an alternative to traditional EVA foam, introducing a midsole consisting of thousands of expanded particles that worked in-tandem to provide improved energy return with every stride. Runners immediately took a liking to the Three Stripes’ technological advancement, with Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto smashing the world record at the Berlin Marathon in 2014. The shoes he wore?: The adidas Adizero Adios BOOST.
The running world wasn’t the only one to notice the highly-lauded cushioning solution. Influential figures like Kanye West helped popularize silhouettes like the UltraBOOST, bringing lifestyle cachet to performance-oriented designs. Everything BOOST touched turned to gold, leading to the creation of series like adidas NMD. BOOST technology helped the Three Stripes bring its iconic 3-Stripes and trefoil logos to new audiences –- in particular in North America — while pressuring the competition to no longer rest on its laurels.
adidas BOOST turns 10-year-old in 2023. To celebrate, the brand is reissuing the first edition of the UltraBOOST, revisiting the nomad-friendly NMD line, and expanding the story with the AlphaBOOST v1. You can shop BOOST history via adidas.com right now, and find our favorite picks ahead.
Being the 10th Anniversary of BOOST, we’d be remiss not to mention the UltraBOOST, the sneaker franchise arguably responsible for putting the cushioning on the map. Introduced back in 2015, the line-up has since ushered in several different versions — none, however, quite as popular as the 1.0. Worked on and worn by some of the biggest celebrities and labels in the industry, the model still remains relevant today, with adidas bringing about its return through their “DNA” series. Now, the Three Stripes keep a readily available stock of colorways, some of which recall the much-beloved runner’s heyday.
Hot off the heels of the UltraBOOST, adidas expanded their BOOST catalog with the NMD, an equally popular, lifestyle-oriented franchise that continues to see new models today. But these contemporary designs — such as the NMD V3 and the NMD S1 — would never have come to be if not for the NMD R1, which introduced sneaker culture to the series at the tail end of 2015. No entry has yet to top the popularity of the OG, and it’s likely this may always be the case as the Three Stripes are constantly adding to the silhouette’s catalog of colorways.
adidas’ newest addition to BOOST, the AlphaBOOST V1, may be their most innovative yet, as it borrows several of the brand’s most notable technologies, such as adiPRENE, FORMOTION, and ADIWEAR. What’s most notable, however, is the runner’s blend of BOUNCE and BOOST, which effectively bridges the soft, springy ride of the former with the energy return of the latter. And following its debut back in 2022, the model has been dressed in wide range of colorways, from “Cloud White” to “Royal Blue,” all of which are available right now.