Behind the Scenes at Adidas: The Road to Stockholm
In June 2025, at the HYROX World Championships in Chicago, IL, Germany’s Tim Wenisch completed his 100th wall ball, crossed the finish line in 53:53, and stood on the podium as a World Champion. He beat second-place Hunter McIntyre by just five seconds.
Fast forward to the present, and the 2026 season is fully underway, with athletes seeking to qualify at the HYROX majors held worldwide for the 2026 World Championship taking place in Stockholm, Sweden, June 18-21.
- This year, Wenisch is representing the three Adidas stripes alongside fellow hybrid athletes Graham Halliday, Jana Lebenstedt, and Fabi Eisenlauer.
Recently, those four athletes, along with CrossFitters Jen Muir and Ella Wilkinson, traveled to Adidas Headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, to participate in performance testing for a new hybrid training shoe that has yet to be released.
In the first episode of a video series chronicling the testing and design process, the Adidas team shared a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of the athletes at the Innovation Center.
Adidas already knows what a good running shoe is. But a good hybrid shoe would be new for the brand.
In the episode, Dr. Gomaar D’Hulst explains that at the Innovation Lab, athletes train with multiple prototypes alongside their regular training shoes for comparison. They examine biomechanics and physiological responses to determine why an athlete performs better in one shoe than another.
What makes the perfect hybrid shoe?
- “You need good stabilization, you need to have a good grip,” said Wenisch. “For me personally, I look for the stack and the bounce, but you’re also looking for the stability in between that, which is quite a hard find,” Halliday added.
A hybrid shoe needs to stand up to running, bounding, pushing, and more.
One of the testing stages involved putting them through sets of wallballs while the concept testing team measured the forward lean at the bottom of the squat and its variance while wearing different footwear. They tested a range of heel-to-toe drops.
- “The biggest challenge is to add those functional fitness exercises,” Kevin Roevens, Manager of Athlete Performance for Adidas, explained. “We have sled push, sled pull. You need a lot of grip to make sure the shoe stays stable enough.”
The team approached design, innovation, and testing rigorously and scientifically, but also relied heavily on the human element. A strong emphasis was placed on feedback from athletes who tested the footwear, as they are best equipped to recognize nuances in fit, feel, and performance.
- “To work together in such a collaborative way, directly with the athletes, and have that close relationship has really been our stronghold and our benefit to bring the best for them. We have a difference in heel-to-toe drop. We have a difference in geometries. We have a difference in how the upper is built. Plus a couple of ingredients that are going to be quite a game-winning combination,” Willem Van Beuningen, Senior Manager of Concepts, said.
The filming crew is cagey about its shots of the athletes’ feet throughout the episode. We see flashes of white with the signature three stripes, but specifics are left to our imagination and social media sleuthing. The athlete testers approve.
- “That’s the sort of shoe I would look for. Comfort, bounce, almost like you’re stepping on clouds,” Halliday said.
- Wenisch adds: “While I can’t speak to the specific details of the footwear, this is a shoe that I’ve been closely involved in the development of alongside the Adidas innovation team, and I was very excited to put it to the test on the world stage.”
Details and dates regarding the shoe’s release have not been shared yet. Watch the full episode here.
