Adidas ClimaCool Ride

Recently I received a bright red pair of Adidas ClimaCool Ride sneakers. The Adidas ClimaCool Ride is Adidas offering to the minimalist shoe market.

Adidas offers the following statement about the ClimaCool Ride:

Light, durable and made to keep your feet fresh when you run. These adidas CC Ride running shoes have a lightweight mesh upper, allover CLIMACOOL® ventilation, adiPRENE®+ in the forefoot for more efficient propulsion and adiPRENE® under the heel for cushioning.
Just as a quick intro to the Adidas ClimaCool Ride review, as soon as I opened the box for my ClimaCool Ride's I was in love. I must say that the Ride's are on of the best looking Minimalist running shoes on the market. My pair of ClimaCool Rides are a bright red that get comments wherever I go.

For those that don't want to read my full review I'll sum it up here, The Adidas ClimaCool Ride's are a great looking lightweight, flexible running shoe. The Adidas ClimaCool Ride is not a true minimalist running shoe. I would say that the Ride would be placed in the intro category, a great transition shoe to the minimalist running shoe world like the Reebox Realflex or Nike Free. The Limitations of the ClimaCool Ride is that the sole is a little too thick and the toe box is too narrow.

Full Review:

Look: The design of the Adidas ClimaCool Ride is something that is welcome in the minimalist running shoe market, in the past barefoot shoes or minimal shoes were a little dull. But the Ride sneakers come in 26 bright colors that all look awesome and are great for matching with your cool running gear.

Comfort: The ClimaCool Ride wins a gold medal on the side of comfort. The shoe fits well and is well cushioned (Wishing it was less cushioned to make more minimal) and well ventilated. The Ride offers an impressive 360 degree ventilation system, the easiest way to see this is to wear a bright pair of socks and you'll see how vented they are.

Adidas offers that the ClimaCool material achieves 20 percent reduction in in-shoe moisture and 12 percent drop in foot temperature, two critical factors against foot disease and discomfort, I'm not 100% sold on the fighting disease but I'll read on it a little more.

Weight: The Ride comes in weighing in only at 8.9 ounces, which is a nice weight but I would have liked to see it come in a little lighter.

Sole:  The Sole of the ClimaCool Ride looks like a winding road, it has deep flex grooves that are in place to offer flexibility. The sole of the Ride is a little thick for a minimal shoe, so if your looking for that ground feedback you may want to look else wheres. But as a comfy shoe the Ride offers cushioning to absorb shock.

Toe Box: The Toe box of the Climacool Ride is what I would say is rather normal. I am used to some of the other minimalist running shoes that offer a larger toe box so personally I find the Climacool Ride alittle narrow.

Heel Drop: The Adidas Climacool Ride is not a zero drop heel shoe but it's heel is not overly raised but I would like to see Adidas offer a zero drop heel next time.

On the Road:
In order to complete this review you have to take this shoe out on the road.  When running in the ClimaCool Rides right off the start you notice how lightweight and flexible the shoe is. One thing that I didn't notice as much as I would if running in other minimal shoes was the ground feedback. The Ride has a thicker sole so the ground feel is a little muted.
As I mentioned earlier I found that the toe box to the ClimaCool is alittle narrow so that I found I felt alittle constricted when running in the Ride. One downside to running in the Climacool Ride is that you'll get it dirty, the Ride is too pretty to get dirty...lol

So to sum this review up the Adidas Climacool Ride is a good looking lightweight, flexible transition shoe to the minimal running shoe world. If you're a beginner to minimal running the Climacool Ride may be for you, but if you're a hardcore barefoot runner this may be a step back.

Enjoy and Happy Running
Kennyo