Mountain bike tires appear to be popping up everywhere on the soles of footwear these days. First Under Armour with their Fat Tire GTX shoe, and now Adidas finally gets set to release their own mountain bike tire inspired shoe, the Terrex X-King, in the works for some time now. Trail running or mountain running with hard core rubber and tread on my feet? Why, yes please!
Named after the famous X-King mountain bike tire from Continental (I run them on Marge ), the new Terrex X-King trail running shoes from Adidas use the exact same rubber. When you look at the tread pattern on the sole, it is also an exact match to the tire. Using a similar manufacturing process, the rubber is heat-pressed or vulcanized directly into the mesh upper, resulting in a thin and lightweight shoe, but one that is very stable at the same time. For those that are curious about these things, the toe to heel drop is 6mm.
The trail running shoes are extremely flexible–if you remove the unique combination midsole/insole, you will see that the Terrex X-King are more tire than shoe and can bend and fold in any direction. With the midsole replaced, however, the shoes feature all the stability you need to get out and hit the trails.
The Adidas Terrex X-King trail running shoes will start shipping in April and retail for around $150.
