Adidas Supernova Rise Review

The Adidas Supernova Rise is built to fill a gap in the Adidas running shoe range, which has long lacked a good daily trainer to rival something like the Nike Pegasus 40. The Adidas Ultraboost and even Adidas Ultraboost Light are too heavy to fill this role, while shoes in the Adizero range like the Boston have traditionally been seen as more speed-focused options (though the Boston 12 is an excellent daily trainer, in my opinion).

It’s a good shoe and a strong alternative to the Pegasus in particular, but I never quite clicked with the Supernova Rise and don’t rate it among the best running shoes. It’s a jack-of-all-trades shoe, but there are more accomplished all-rounders available.

Adidas Supernova Rise: Price And Availability

The Adidas Supernova Rise costs $140 in the US and £130 in the UK. It’s cheaper than many of the best Adidas running shoes, with the Boston 12 costing $160/£140 and the Adidas Ultraboost Light $190/£170, but in line with the price of similar daily trainers like the Nike Pegasus 40 or Saucony Ride 17. I received my review sample of the Adidas Supernova Rise from SportsShoes.

How I Tested This Shoe

I’ve run 32 miles in the Adidas Supernova Rise, using it for a mix of runs, including a 13.5-mile long run and a couple of progression runs. I have used an Adidas Supernova in the past, though it was a much heavier shoe, as well as several generations of the Adidas Ultraboost and Boston shoes, and a wide range of the best running shoes from other brands.

Design And Fit

The Supernova Rise introduces a new Peba-based midsole foam from Adidas called Dreamstrike+. Adidas’s best foam remains the Lightstrike Pro material used in its Adizero shoes, but Dreamstrike+ is a bouncy foam. The shoe has a stack height of 36mm at the heel and 26mm at the forefoot for a 10mm drop, and weighs 10.1oz/287g in my UK size 9, which is fairly light for a cushioned trainer.

As with many of the shoes in the Adizero racing range, the Supernova Rise has rods in its midsole, but the Support Rods used are wider and softer than the EnergyRods in shoes like the Boston 12, and geared towards stability as much as providing extra pop. The mesh upper is well padded at the heel and tongue, and I found the Supernova Rise had a comfortable fit in my usual running shoe size. This is one area where it improves on the Boston 12, which has a thin racing upper that isn’t comfortable.

The Supernova Rise doesn’t have a Continental rubber outsole, which is often a stand-out feature of Adidas shoes, but the Adiwear rubber used has gripped reliably for me on wet paved surfaces. It looks to be a durable outsole, with no signs of wear and tear after 30 miles.

Running Performance

On paper, the Supernova Rise looks like a winner, and I hoped it would feel a lot like the Boston 12 but with a more comfortable upper for easy runs. However, while I think it’s a versatile daily trainer, I didn’t love the Supernova Rise for any of the runs I did in it.

The Dreamstrike+ foam is well balanced—in that it’s pretty comfortable but has bounce for faster runs—yet it doesn’t feel like a super-foam, and Adidas’s Lightstrike Pro delivers greater energy return. I also found the forefoot wasn’t that comfortable over long distances or when doing faster runs. The stack height at the front of the shoe isn’t that high, and the Dreamstrike+ feels thin and dull there, whereas it is bouncier and more cushioned at the heel where the stack is 10mm higher.

The Supernova Rise works as an all-rounder, though. On a long, slow 13.5-mile run there was enough cushioning for it to be comfortable, and the shoe felt nimble on faster runs too, when I was running around 5min 55sec/mile pace. 

It ticks the boxes it aims to tick as a daily trainer, and fills this role better than many shoes on the market in the same category, but I have preferred other shoes for same job such as the Puma Velocity Nitro 2, Hoka Mach 5, Asics Novablast 4 and New Balance Rebel v3. The Nike Pegasus 40 and Saucony Ride 17 are both less versatile, for me, but more comfortable for easy runs than the Supernova Rise.

I also think the Adidas Boston 12 is more enjoyable for every kind of run, as long as you can get a comfortable fit from the thin upper. Adidas might class the Boston as a speed shoe, but I consider it among the best all-rounders going, and it’s not much more expensive than the Supernova Rise.

Is The Adidas Supernova Rise Worth It?

The Supernova RIse is a good daily trainer and if you find the Boston 12 too lightweight and racy for daily training, it’s the best all-rounder in the Adidas line-up. It also stands up well against rivals from other brands, though I prefer several other shoes myself.

If you pick it up I doubt you’ll be disappointed, especially if you can find it in a sale nearer the $100 mark because it works well for a range of runs. I just found it a bit of let-down given the promise it offered, and wished that rather than introducing a new foam that’s not quite as good as Lightstrike Pro, Adidas had instead popped the Supernova Rise’s comfortable upper on top of the excellent midsole of the Boston 12.