Adidas Pro Elite
2018
3 athlete-issue pieces from the 2018 cycle live in our archive — the oldest adidas kit we hold, from the season the marathon record left the three stripes and the brand's women refused to lose.
Adidas Pro Elite 2018 is the 2018-season generation of adidas athlete-issue kit — issued to contracted athletes and federation squads, never sold at retail, and the earliest adidas cycle in our archive.
This page reads the season first — Miller-Uibo's unbeaten year, Lyles's first diamond, Cherono and Keitany's marathon autumns, and the Berlin day the world record changed brands — then the cycle's navy shattered-camo design, and every piece of it in our archive.
Part of our Brand Series — the full story is in The History of Adidas Pro Elite. Jump to the full cycle collection or browse the category.
- What it is
- The earliest adidas cycle in our archive — deep navy, tonal shattered-camo, athlete issue only
- The unbeaten one
- Miller-Uibo: 11 finals, 11 wins — 48.97 DL record in Monaco
- The first diamond
- Lyles, 21: 19.65 world lead in Monaco and the Zürich final for his first DL trophy
- Berlin, 16 Sept
- Cherono wins in 2:18:11 (course record) — the same day Kipchoge's 2:01:39 takes the WR to Nike
- New York
- Keitany's 4th crown — a 66:58 second half, then the 2nd-fastest winning time in race history
- Boston
- adidas: official sponsor since 1989 (extended to 2030) — 2018 was the freezing Linden/Kawauchi epic
- The shoes
- In 2018 adidas had no carbon supershoe — the Adios Pro answer came in 2020
- The arc closes
- London, April 2026: Sawe's 1:59:30 in the Evo 3 — the record comes back to adidas
The Last Quiet Cycle
Adidas Pro Elite 2018 is the oldest adidas cycle in our archive: deep navy athlete-issue kit from a season before the brand had a supershoe, before Road to Records existed, and before its marathon roster got its records back. The three pieces we hold from it are all women's — which fits, because the adidas season of 2018 was carried by its women.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo, an adidas athlete since her teens, did not lose a final all year: eleven finals, eleven wins, a Diamond League record 48.97 for the 400 m in Monaco — holding off Salwa Eid Naser. Her 200 m title at the Commonwealth Games that April was won in the Bahamas' federation kit, and is not counted here. Tori Bowie, the face of adidas campaigns that year, headlined its Boost Boston Games. And on the men's side a 21-year-old Noah Lyles, adidas since he signed out of high school in 2016, ran 19.65 in Monaco — the fastest 200 m in the world that year — and took his first Diamond League trophy with 19.67 in Zürich.
Bowie's story deserves its full weight here: she died in May 2023, at 32, from complications of childbirth — a loss that pushed maternal health, particularly for Black athletes, into the sport's conversation. Her 2016–18 run as an adidas sprinter is part of what this cycle's kit was built for.
The Day the Record Changed Brands
The defining adidas date of 2018 is one it lost. On 16 September in Berlin, Eliud Kipchoge ran 2:01:39 in Nike Vaporflys and took the marathon world record — a record that had belonged to adidas since Wilson Kipsang's 2:03:23 in 2013 and Dennis Kimetto's 2:02:57 in 2014. In 2018 adidas still had no carbon-plated answer: its elite line was the Adizero Boost family and the plateless Sub2 project Kipsang had co-developed. The reply — the Adios Pro — would not arrive until 2020, and the full circle would take until April 2026, when Sabastian Sawe ran the first official sub-two-hour marathon, 1:59:30 in London, in the 97-gram Adios Pro Evo 3.
The record line (table)
| Year | Race | Time | Athlete | Shoe brand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Berlin | 2:03:23 | Wilson Kipsang | adidas |
| 2014 | Berlin | 2:02:57 | Dennis Kimetto | adidas |
| 2018 | Berlin | 2:01:39 | Eliud Kipchoge | nike |
| 2023 | Chicago | 2:00:35 | Kelvin Kiptum | nike |
| 2026 | London | 1:59:30 | Sabastian Sawe | adidas |
But read the whole of that Berlin day and the season looks different. The women's race was won by Gladys Cherono — an adidas Adizero athlete — in 2:18:11, a course record that took down a 13-year-old mark and made her then the fourth-fastest woman in history. Kipsang finished third in the men's race, adidas on the podium of Nike's biggest day. (His later story needs the honest footnote: in 2020 he was banned four years over whereabouts failures — the first of them dating to April 2018 — and case tampering; he never tested positive, and the ban ran out in 2024.)
Seven weeks later Mary Keitany won her fourth New York City Marathon in 2:22:48, splitting the field with a 66:58 second half to win by more than three minutes — then the second-fastest winning time in the race's history, run in adidas. And in April the brand had dressed the most storied marathon day of the decade without any of its athletes winning it: adidas has been official sponsor of the Boston Marathon since 1989 — a deal since extended to 2030 — and the 2018 edition, run into freezing rain, was the one where Des Linden ended a 33-year American wait and Yuki Kawauchi a 31-year Japanese one. The celebration jacket of that day, like every Boston since 1989, carried three stripes.
From this cycle · in the archiveAdidas Pro Elite 2018 Women Running ShortsRunning shorts from the same 2018 allocation — the oldest adidas issue in the archive.70,00 €View piece →The Kit of the Cycle
The 2018 cycle is the quietest design language adidas ever issued to its athletes: deep navy with a tonal shattered-camo print, a plain white performance logo and the three stripes riding the hip seam. No volt, no gradients, no strain-reactive panels — a pre-supershoe kit from the last season before the arms race. Two years later the Adios Pro and its EnergyRods would change the shoes; the apparel got louder with them.
Construction follows the athlete-issue rules our authentication guide covers: competition-weight cloth, race cuts, no retail run. “Pro Elite” is the collector market's label — adidas itself doesn't use it.
From this cycle · in the archiveAdidas Pro Elite 2018 Women Sprint Competition BriefsSprint briefs from the navy shattered-camo cycle — the season Miller-Uibo went unbeaten and the record left Berlin in the other brand's shoes.100,00 €View piece →The Full 2018 Cycle in the Archive
Every 2018 piece we hold, grouped by edition — in-stock first, sold pieces dimmed and documented, refreshed against live stock. For the other adidas years, the brand pillar carries every cycle, and the 2024 deep-dive covers the Paris year.
What is Adidas Pro Elite 2018 kit?
Athlete-issue adidas competition kit from the 2018 season — deep navy with a tonal shattered-camo print, a plain white logo and the three stripes on the hip seam. It was issued to contracted athletes and squads, never retailed, and it is the oldest adidas cycle in our archive: three women's pieces.
What did adidas athletes win in 2018?
Shaunae Miller-Uibo went unbeaten through eleven finals with a Diamond League record 48.97; Noah Lyles ran the world-leading 19.65 and won his first Diamond League title; Gladys Cherono won Berlin in a 2:18:11 course record; and Mary Keitany took her fourth New York title with a 66:58 second half.
Why is 2018 called the year the record left adidas?
The marathon world record had been set in adidas shoes by Kipsang (2:03:23, 2013) and Kimetto (2:02:57, 2014). In Berlin 2018 Kipchoge ran 2:01:39 in Nike Vaporflys — and adidas, which had no carbon-plated shoe yet, lost the mark it had held for five years. It got it back in April 2026, when Sabastian Sawe ran the first official sub-2 marathon, 1:59:30, in the Adios Pro Evo 3.
How do I recognise a 2018 adidas athlete-issue piece?
Deep navy base with a tonal shattered-camo print, a plain white performance logo, and the three stripes riding the hip seam — the quietest palette of any adidas cycle, from before the supershoe era.
What became of the 2018 adidas roster?
Lyles is still adidas — signed through 2029. Miller-Uibo is working her way back after motherhood and injury. Keitany retired in 2021 with four New York titles. Tori Bowie died in May 2023 from complications of childbirth, a loss felt far beyond the sport.
Sources and References
- The Washington Post — the Lyles brothers turn pro — Noah Lyles signing with adidas in July 2016
- World Athletics — Monaco Diamond League 2018 report — Miller-Uibo’s 48.97 Diamond League record; the meeting of Lyles’s 19.65
- Watch Athletics — 2018 Weltklasse Zürich results — Lyles’s first Diamond League title, 19.67
- RunBlogRun — adidas Boost Boston Games 2018 — Bowie and Miller-Uibo named as adidas sponsored athletes, May 2018
- Athletics Weekly — Gold Coast 200 m final — the Commonwealth Games record 22.09
- World Athletics — Berlin Marathon 2018 report — Kipchoge’s 2:01:39, Cherono’s 2:18:11 course record, Kipsang third
- LetsRun — Keitany’s fourth New York crown — the 2:22:48 and the 66:58 second half
- B.A.A. — adidas sponsorship extended through 2030 — adidas as official Boston Marathon sponsor since 1989
- Sports Illustrated — the Adizero Sub2 — the plateless Sub2 project co-developed with Kipsang
- Sky Sports — Kipsang banned four years — the whereabouts failures from April 2018 and the 2020 ban
- CNN — the death of Tori Bowie — her passing in May 2023 from childbirth complications
- Gear Patrol — Sawe, London 2026 and the Evo 3 — the 1:59:30 and Assefa’s 2:15:41, both in the Adios Pro Evo 3