Adidas Adipower Weightlifting Shoes

These shoes were the first pair of Olympic Weightlifting specific shoes that I bought when I decided to start training again. I actually bought these at the same time that I entered my first meet (unsanctioned) at Capital City Barbell here in Tallahassee. I had been out of sport for so long, I was untrained and signed up for a meet with 4-5 weeks of prep time – lolz. Adidas was the first company I looked at, because I was familiar with their old product line. The Adipower’s look very slick, and have enough of a traditional look to the upper, that it almost allows you to overlook the chunk of waffled plastic that now serves as a heel. I bought these for a bit under $100 shipped via Amazon in November of 2017. The white upper, with black stripes, is the classiest (and most classic) of the colorways they did. The heel is a little over 3/4″ of a lift, with a very classic type of drop.

The Good; They checked all of the boxes for what I wanted in a lifter, at the time; they looked good, they seemed to transfer force well, they held up well to rough lifting environments.

The Bad; The shoe is incredibly narrow in the forefoot, I don’t know what’s happened with how Adidas sized these shoes up. In hindsight, these would need to be ordered 1-1.5 sizes up, to fit me well. The materials are cheap, cheap cheap.

The Takeaway; This was, and still is, the best looking Olympic Weightlifting shoe that Adidas has produced in the last 5 years, or so. A real shame. They lift well, and many others have great success with them, but it’s disappointing when you know what type of shoe Adidas is capable of producing.