Adidas, Nike and Under Armour Went to War at Chicago. Adidas Won.

Nike has sponsored the Chicago Marathon since 2008. Its logo is on the finish arch, the medals and the official race kits. On Sunday, Adidas swept both wins and took three of the six podium places. The shoe race at the 2026 Bank of America Chicago Marathon told a more interesting story than the one on the results board.

Three brands shared the six podium spots. One of those brands raced in a shoe cleared by World Athletics four days before the gun. Another won in a shoe that does not go on sale until January. And Adidas, with its $500 superracer, walked away with its most complete performance of a remarkable year.

Here is a breakdown of what every podium finisher wore, what each shoe is and what Chicago tells us about where the marathon footwear arms race stands right now.

Chicago Marathon 2026 Podium: Who Wore What

The $500 Shoe That Now Owns the 2026 Marathon Season

The Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 is the lightest racing shoe Adidas has ever built: 97 grams in a men’s size 9.5, making it the first Adidas running shoe to break the 100-gram barrier. It launched in April, the same month Sabastian Sawe wore it to run 1:59:30 in London. It costs $500.

After Chicago, it has accounted for seven of the 12 World Marathon Major wins in 2026: both races in London, Berlin and Chicago, plus the women’s race in Sydney. At Berlin two weeks ago, every runner on the podium wore it.

Kipruto finished second at Chicago 2025 in the older Adios Pro Evo 2. He upgraded, broke from Jacob Kiplimo between 30K and 35K and clocked 2:01:09, the second-fastest winning time in the race’s history, finishing 30 seconds inside the personal best he set in London in April. Feysa won here last year in an Adios Pro Evo 1 and was still in that shoe when she finished third in Tokyo in March. On Sunday in the Evo 3, she ran 1:23 faster than she did in 2025 and pulled away from Lokedi after 40K to win by 34 seconds. Takele, who won Tokyo in the Evo 1, came home second in 2:02:56, a personal best by 27 seconds.

Adidas also released the Adios Pro 5 at $275 from September as a more accessible race-day option. The three runners on Sunday’s Chicago podium did not need it.

What Is the Nike Apex and When Does It Go on Sale?

Nike unveiled the Apex on September 30, just 11 days before race day. It is not on sale yet, with a January release confirmed and no price announced.

Technically it is a genuinely unusual shoe. It carries zero drop, standing at the World Athletics maximum of 40mm at both the heel and forefoot. Under the forefoot sit four Air Zoom units stacked in two layers inside ZoomX LT foam, with a carbon Flyplate above them. Nike claims up to 40 percent more energy return than the Alphafly 3.

Kosgei, a two-time Chicago champion who won Tokyo this year in the Vaporfly 4, was part of a group Nike flew to the Lornah Kiplagat Sports Academy in Eldoret in late July to test prototypes. She ran 12 x 1,000m while rotating through four versions, looking for a lighter shoe that could hold grip on wet roads. She set a 65:30 first half on Sunday that the leaders never came close to matching, and finished third in 2:14:55. Mengesha, who ran third in the men’s race, was also in the Apex.

Under Armour’s Four-Day Clearance: What Is the Velociti Elite 3 SL DEV?

The most unusual footwear story of Sunday belongs to Sharon Lokedi. She finished second in the women’s race in a shoe listed on World Athletics’ approved footwear database as the UA Velociti Elite 3 SL DEV.

The DEV classification marks it as a prototype: eligible to race for up to 12 months from the date of listing but never sold to the public. That listing went live on the Wednesday before Sunday’s race. Under Armour has not published any details of how the SL DEV differs from the production Velociti Elite 3.

The production version sells for $250. It weighs 221 grams in a men’s size 9, uses a HOVR+ PEBA midsole with a full-length carbon plate and carries only a 2mm drop. Lokedi won Boston in April in that production shoe, for the second consecutive year. Chicago was her first race on a genuinely flat course and she was level with Feysa at 40K before fading in the final stretch.

What Does the 2026 Chicago Shoe Result Actually Mean?

The broader picture from the 2026 marathon calendar is that the performance gap between the very top shoes has narrowed, but Adidas has had the right athletes in the right shoe at the right moments. Seven of twelve Major wins is not a coincidence.

What Chicago also confirms is that the prototype pipeline is now a standard part of the elite footwear race. Of the six podium shoes on Sunday, one was a production Evo 3, one was an Under Armour prototype and two were a Nike shoe that civilian runners cannot yet buy. The product you will eventually find in a shop may perform differently from what you watched cross the line at Columbus Drive.

For most runners, the practical take from Chicago is simpler: the Adios Pro Evo 3 is the best-performing shoe on the biggest stages this year, but at $500 it is a commitment. The Adios Pro 5, the Vaporfly 4 and the Velociti Elite 3 are all in a competitive range below it. The Nike Apex will be worth watching closely when it lands in January.

For a full breakdown of the race itself, including splits, results and the winning performances in context, see our Chicago Marathon 2026 results dispatch. And for everything you need to know about running the race yourself, our full Chicago Marathon race guide covers the course, registration, logistics and what to expect on race day.