What do the tires on your car or bike and the soles of your shoes have in common? They ensure safe contact with the ground, no matter how you’re moving forward!
Just like our car and bike tires, Continental rubber soles are the result of German engineering, international research and thorough testing. For the past ten years, adidas has relied on our material expertise to keep their shoes grounded, no matter where their journey takes them.
adidas shoes with Continental soles provide runners with the grip they need to make every mile count in training and competition. They meet the toughest conditions of the great outdoors and see hikers and mountaineers through any adventure. Whether you’re driving, cycling, pounding the tarmac or scaling craggy mountains, Continental can take you further.
Join us on a run through the highs, records and successes of the first decade.
Ten years ago, when leading sports equipment manufacturer adidas enlisted Continental’s material expertise, their shared goal was to create the best performance shoes possible. The first adidas shoe with Continental running soles that resulted from the performance-driven partnership was designed for trail running. Many more models have been added to the range since – currently you can choose over 250 different models. But when professional tire designers join forces with sports shoe experts, the result isn’t only measured in the quantity, but also in the quality of the resulting product – and in records.
What do the tires on your car or bike and the soles of your shoes have in common? They ensure safe contact with the ground, no matter how you’re moving forward!
Three marathon world records and one Guinness World Record have been set on our soles, plus two Olympic medals have been won with adidas x Continental shoes and Continental tires. And that’s only the tip of the vertical running slope, the peak of the mountain, the top step on the winners' podium…
We tip our hats to marathon champions Patrick Makau, Wilson Kipsang and Dennis Kimetto, who each set (and broke each other’s) records on our soles, triathletes Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, who won Gold and Silver at the Rio Olympics on Continental soles AND race bike tires, as well as double Olympic Gold medalist Johannes Rydzek, who ran the world's steepest 50-meter sprint, officially recognized by Guinness World Records, with adidas x Continental shoes.
Their remarkable achievements were enhanced and supported by research marathons, development sprints, testing competitions and scientific breakthroughs behind the scenes. Continental already had more than a century of experience working with rubber compounds for tires. Since expanding into rubber soles, our development engineers studied which natural and synthetic rubber compounds would boost an athlete’s performance – regardless of weather conditions, temperature, or the surface they are running on. The resulting soles offer 30 percent more traction, a reduction in slip, and enable competitors to run more efficiently.
About the idea of transferring tire technology to shoe soles.
The partnership between Continental and adidas is ten years in the making – and we’ve only just begun. We look forward to the next decade of research, innovation and record-breaking design.
