After 91 miles of varied runs, it’s time for an adidas Adizero Boston 12 review. Overall, I’m finding them to be fast and fun, but needed a few miles to get used to the cushion and the roll off the front.
What sort of running is the adidas Adizero Boston 12 reviewed here for?
I bought these because I needed some shoes for faster training sessions and I was keen to try Lightstrike Pro, without going for a full race shoe.
adidas say it’s good for tempo pace runs over mid to long distance, which seems about right based on the variety of runs I’ve tried in it. The upper allows a bit too much movement for the really short, fast stuff like 200-800m reps, especially if you are doing it on road and need to turn around at half way points, and instead it excels over longer runs at tempo or easy pace. It would also be fun at medium fast efforts over shorter distances like a flat 5K.
adidas Adizero Boston 12 construction
The adidas Boston 12 has a mix of foams, with glass fibre rods in between, to give that modern bouncy feel, but retain some stability, without the need for a full carbon plate.
The upper is a strong, thin engineered mesh, with a reinforced band around the middle that retains the laces going over the top of the arch of the foot.
Rather than the laces crossing diagonally, the eyelets in the middle band are very long so the laces cross in parallel and then go straight up the shoe, before crossing again.
The toe area has a thin overlay for longevity.
The top layer of the midsole is Lightstrike Pro. This gives the Boston a distinctive bouncy feel compared to full EVA midsoles. It is more prominent in the forefoot where you’d expect that bounce to be beneficial during toe-off.
Within the Lightstrike Pro, there are glass fibre rods, shaped a bit like tendons in the foot. These lend some structure to that bouncy layer, so the high stack still retains a semblance of stability in corners.
The bottom layer of the midsole is Lightstrike 2.0. After the disappointment of the original Lightstrike, which felt a bit leaden on the first entry level SL, the Lightstrike 2.0 is a revelation, undoing all the wrongs, feeling snappy and responsive.
Combining those two layers of poppy bounce and snappy responsiveness is what gives the Boston 12 its distinctive character.
The midsole heel has a slight overhang. In the heel portion of the upper, there’s a token-gesture of a heel-counter. Given that heel has pads at the top to keep the heel in place and is quite snug, the heel-counter seems unnecessary, but for people that land with large heel bias in front of the knee, it would perhaps add a little guidance.
There’s a fold-down heel tab to help get the shoe on, due to the snugness and lack of stretch in the heel area.
The outsole is a substantial layer of Continental rubber.
How does it look?
Whilst it looks quite high due to the stack, the way the Lightstrike Pro sweeps down and expands towards the front of the shoe looks great. The adidas stripes are only on one side of the shoe which makes it distinctive.
adidas Adizero Boston 12 weight and size
My adidas adizero Boston 12 were size 11.5UK. They weighed in at 302g. This makes them about 50g heavier in my size than a race specific shoe, but still fairly light.
In other adizero shoes, like most recently the Takumi Sen 10, I’ve typically gone for a size 12UK, being half a size up from most shoes, but I was glad I heeded advice to stick to normal sizing for the Boston 12. It’s a perfect length and any larger, I feel I’d be swimming around on the width. I have quite narrow feet.
adidas Adizero Boston 12 Heel drop
The heel drop on the adidas Adizero Boston 12 is stated to be 7mm, and this feels about right. I prefer a lower drop shoe and it always felt like my heel was sinking down properly in the middle of the stride, rather than being tipped forwards at the hips too much. So I’m happy with the drop.
Longevity
I’ve done 91 miles now and the Boston 12 outsole looks almost like new. I’ve always been a fan of the Continental materials in running shoes, because they give good grip but wear slowly.
adidas make good uppers. I’ve had so many pairs of adidas where the upper has lasted well beyond the midsole, even with the midsole has gone on for over 1000 miles. The upper on the Bostons look as-new, in terms of crease wear and scuff.
What’s the Boston 12 like on the run?
The first time I tried the Boston 12, I realised immediately that the pronounced toe-spring made it feel different, where the high stack has to sweep up fast to the front of the toes. It feels like you are being tipped forwards super-fast. I’ve used other high stack shoes with similar toe-spring ramps, like the Endorphin, but those had superfoam throughout, so felt a lot smoother.
In contrast, the Boston 12 has a firmer mix of two foams at the back of the shoe and softer expanse of Lightstrike Pro at the front, so you naturally start compressing the front more, at which point, you also then want to roll up the toe-spring. This makes it feel fast. It also took me about 5 miles to get the hang of in my first run. It required more hamstring control, to prevent the knee dropping forwards. After a couple of runs, the effect reduced, I guess as the Lightstrike 2.0 softened up slightly.
So, yes, the Boston 12 feels fast from the word go. My first run was all at an easy pace and I noted that the lacing required a few adjustments, during the run, to keep my foot from moving around. Once I’d found the sweet spot for the laces, I noted that it prefers a higher cadence, even at easy paces, encouraging you to get the foot down quickly for a stable landing.
On longer easy runs, the Boston 12s felt like they could cruise all day, and certainly most of legs, especially the calves were noticeably less fatigued than when wearing low stack shoes. However, it has to go somewhere and my hamstrings felt more used. So at an easy pace, the Boston 12s will suit a stronger runner with good form.
For medium fast runs, like tempos at threshold, fartlek sessions and long reps, the Boston 12s actually felt superb, once you get used to that toe-spring action and relax into it. This is their reason for existing and it’s so much fun. After a smashing out a mile rep in the middle of a longer run, my legs felt like they should be able to do more, even though my heart and lungs were telling my legs to get lost.
My only criticism is that it never felt locked down enough for the fast reps, but I have other shoes for that with lower stacks too.
Since you can use these on easy and moderately fast runs, combined with the decent longevity, this does make quite a good value training shoe. It’s fun in a variety of situations, as long as you have the control for the fast toe-spring roll and can relax while it’s tempting you to run faster. It will be one of my most used shoes over the coming months.