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adidas Archives Special Tour! Evolution of the Marathon Shoe from Zapotek to Today & Track Spikes
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Jul 16, 2024
In the video, Udo Muller digs deep into the historic archives for a rare view of historic shoes demonstrating the evolution of the marathon racer from Zaoptek, Haile, and now the Pro EVO 1. He also shows us Wilma Rudolph, Edwin Moses, and Jackie Joyner Kersee's medal winning spikes and ends with Adi's key re invention of the soccer boot in 1954. You won't believe what came before!
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0:00
Hello everybody, Sam from Road Trail Run
0:02
Something unusual today. I had the pleasure and honor of visiting Adidas headquarters this week
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And part of my visit there included a tour in Adidas' 75th anniversary year
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of their historic archives of running soccer apparel at track and field where Udo Muller showed me
0:23
starting the very original Adidas track spike before the brand was even named, the Adidasler spike
0:30
So Udo's gonna give us a grand tour. Stay tuned. We're with Udo in the archives
0:36
Udo, tell us who you are and what are we gonna see here today
0:41
Hello, yeah. My name is Udo and I joined the company already in 1992
0:46
It was a great pleasure when the history management team basically, I shouldn't say, maybe adopted me five years ago
0:55
after a terrible tumor disease. I was happy because the last five years
0:59
I could accomplish a lot of the things. My history in running goes back to 1972
1:04
but this is one of my first products that I made with a running team back in the 90s
1:09
And when you see where we started and what we archive today
1:14
I mean, finishing probably with the best race flat of all times that we made
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And this is the most record breaking shoe probably of all times
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This is a great, no, I shouldn't say just not fun, but even more so fulfilling process
1:29
to see at the end of my career before I basically retire in this year
1:35
that Adidas has such a long and rich history of running. Udo's gonna give us a quick journey
1:40
through the marathon racers. Go ahead, Udo. I don't even know where to start
1:44
but I think it's probably fair to start with one of the best distant runners of all time
1:48
with my good old friend, Emil Zatopek. This was one of his training shoes
1:52
that he used in the 50s. You see already the brand, the famous three stripes to have a key identifier
1:59
on his shoes, very thin cushioning, but a lovely idea from our founder Adidas
2:06
led to have more stability under the heel so that the shoe would not stretch and get out of shape
2:13
So Emil loved these shoes as much as he did for his track races
2:17
This is one of the early spikes he has worn in these years
2:22
You see a very soft leather. And then of course I'll do a little jump now
2:27
into the 70s, I think. Adidas first real, real running shoe was a shoe called the Akil
2:35
It came with a very smooth suede leather. Again, the famous three stripes to really showcase the brand
2:44
but what was more important for the runner to have really a little bit of heel cushioning
2:49
It was a time when running became popular, when people reached out and that was the leather version
2:56
I think even more successful and fun enough today, it's one of the most popular sneakers in the market
3:03
was the introduction, I should take the first one, was the introduction of the SL72
3:07
our first running shoe featuring a lightweight breathable nylon upper. And about when
3:13
It was 1972. So it was launched around the Munich Olympics and many, many runners loved it
3:21
It was my first running shoe in those years. And later, Adi made slight adjustments
3:28
and together with the running team, they gradually upgraded the cushioning level a little bit
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but it stayed even though it came different colorways, it stayed very much the same for a long time
3:39
because it was a perfect fit. It was flexible, it was lightweight
3:42
everything a runner wanted. I think unforgotten is maybe that baby that was introduced at the late seventies
3:51
a shoe called the Marathon 80. And you might remember when Greta Weitz ran
3:58
and won her first New York Marathon, she did this in that model
4:04
It was such a lightweight, highly flexible shoe, incredibly lightweight, but the running team back then added a few nice things
4:15
And for example, using the nice logo of the company, which was the travel at the time
4:21
even to be a kind of traction element in the outsole and that kind of extended outsole here in the back
4:31
So in case you land on the heel, you have a wider surface to give you grip when you land
4:36
and a bit of more cushioning. It was the base work for many, many more race flats
4:43
to come in later years. We talked about the eighties. I think it's unfair maybe only to say
4:48
it was Adidas Germany working on new shoes at that time. There was also a great amount of great running shoes
4:57
coming out of Adidas France. Addison Horst was opening up already in the sixties
5:04
shoe production for tennis, for basketball out of France. And one of their greatest innovations
5:10
was the so-called set X series that they launched in the eighties
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So this became the base work, the groundwork for what Adidas later launched
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under the name of Torsion. So there was almost a parallel development
5:24
coming out of France and out of Germany. So this was one of the shoes from France
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And at the same time, I just picked one, which was a sensation in the eighties
5:34
A shoe today, sneaker freaks are getting pretty excited when they see the micro pacer, ultra thin leather wrapper
5:43
but there was a tiny computer embedded into the tongue of the shoe
5:48
to make sure you could see how much you ran. So it was the first, basically a gadget
5:55
to really get a little bit to know about your performances that you did in running
6:00
And of course you see already with a different color zones, it was a time when we all started
6:06
in the running shoe industry to look a bit more into the motion of a runner
6:11
and to adjust if you maybe were not born with perfect leg alignments or foot alignments
6:16
that you had a bit of better motion control next to good pushing, things like that
6:23
This is a shoe that I made in the time when I joined Adidas
6:29
Our team saw that there were runners really looking for an even lighter weight race model
6:37
So when we launched the advanced challenge in those years, we played around with injection EVA
6:44
because it was a very well cushioned, it was stable. And I loved in that times that many, many records
6:51
were done on mid, on half marathons and full marathons with an ultra thin outsole
6:58
It became the foundation for many more shoes to come. I grabbed one where we had a bit of
7:05
not, I shouldn't say failure, but a great learning material. This was a shoe in the nineties
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when we played around with carbon reinforcements, with a carbon plate. So we tried to really to improve
7:18
and enhance the propulsion, but probably we did a little bit too much of a good thing
7:24
And some runners returned it because they felt it's too much and they got a little bit of Achilles problems
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But it was a good, good learning because if I compare that to what was the sensation now
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not only with Tigges world record last year in Berlin, when she did this unbelievable sub to 12 performance
7:44
in a mixed race. Now we've seen Paris world record in London
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in the women only race. But this is the shoe that Tola was wearing
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in New York last year, winning in this crazy time under two or five
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130 gram shoe where now it's all in perfect harmonization, the geometry, the midsole foams
8:08
and the way the carbon reinforcement inside really helped to catapult, or help the athlete to have an even more natural motion
8:18
and really use their efficiency in the best way we can. And I agree
8:22
A long, long time ago. I shouldn't say failures, but from learning to where we are today
8:28
Like I said, this is sometimes crazy when I remember my times, I ran marathons in such shoes and maybe it's fair to say
8:36
what Heile, I mean, I have one shoe not put out yet
8:42
No, we'll take it out because here's the model that from all probably I love the most
8:49
I was looking at Heile for over five years when he again tried again to be the first athlete
8:58
to finish under two hours and four minutes. And sometimes he failed for whatever reasons
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And on that cold, chilly morning in Berlin in 2008, he was pretty confident
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And when we were waiting at the Brandenburg Gate, we saw the clock already on two or three, oh, oh
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and we knew it's a minimum a minute to get to the finish line
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And in the end it was two or three 59 with this unbelievable Adizero model
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Everyone loved it. It was such a record day for Heile and for us
9:31
And I have to say when we interviewed Heile earlier this year
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at our Adizero Road to Records event here in Herzog, he said, and he did not say that with arrogance
9:40
but he said it with confidence. He said, if I would have had a shoe like that
9:46
I guess I would have been the first man in the world to beat the two hours
9:50
And now we can speculate, but the way he said it and the way how these models today
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improve the performances, who knows? I mean, I don't want to end in speculation
10:03
but between 2008 and 2024, there's a big hell of a difference, I believe
10:08
Thank you. I prepared a few small surprises for you. I think some might remember the sensational performance
10:17
of Wilma Rudolph in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. This is one of her original spikes that she used in 1960
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If we go to the eighties, however, it's not complete without mentioning
10:30
the best hurdler of all times, probably Edwin Moses that left some of his great shoes
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And my personal favorite, since I worked with her for a couple of years
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Jackie Joyner-Kersee's spike shoe that she used when she did her fabulous half-dauphlons
10:51
She was an amazing athlete and she continues to be a brand ambassador for us
10:56
So what a lovely performance product. We are in the archives, but we're going to talk soccer
11:03
So what do we have here, Udo? I think I'll take you back to the early fifties
11:08
I mean, you must imagine there was a time when our founder Adi Dassler really made a sensation
11:14
with that football or soccer boot, as you call it, because in that times, I have to start with that one
11:21
In that times, many soccer shoes were simply looking a bit like a hiking boot
11:25
They were pretty sturdy, pretty heavy, a bit unflexible. They had, for the most part, leather starts
11:31
so everything else but comfortable, but Adi didn't like all that. So what he did, and the German team actually wore that model
11:40
was a lightweight, truly soft leather upper, low profile version and the sensation
11:47
also equipped with exchangeable plastic starts that didn't absorb water. So in total, that was much lighter and more flexible
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than what the competitors had to wear. Excellent
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