Driven by comfort and technical design with just a twist of dad-core vibes, the “tech runner” movement still remains as the king of footwear trends as we head into the latter half of the 2020s. adidas has been no stranger to this category, proffering these once unstylish runners from the 1990s and unearthing these core running models at the right time.
Lately, adidas has been putting all the pieces in place to position the Adistar family as one of the pillars of this era. The Adistar Cushion 3 specifically has carved its own lane, setting the framework for Pharrell’s massively popular Jellyfish silhouette in 2025 and the upcoming Adistar XLG 2.0 in 2026.
As far as true re-issues go, you don’t need to look farther than the Adistar Control 5, a high-performance runner’s delight that originally dropped in 2008. This script is hardly unfamiliar as brands across the board have been focusing on the 2000s era of running for the second life in 2025 and beyond, but the Adistar name is hardly a “Y2K” modern marvel.
We learned during our trip to the adidas brand archive in Herzogenaurach, Germany that the Adistar was born way back in 1976. Read on for a first-hand look at some of these incredible relics of the prized archive and how the brand’s past continues to inform the future.