Down in the depths of the Future lab, adidas’ design team cooked up a new runner called the AlphaBOUNCE. The silhouette incorporates full-length Bounce technology, which is a first for the brand. 

Designer George Robusti has been working on the project for over a year and promises a high performing, multi-purpose shoe. Here, Robusti, as well as adidas product developers Andy Barr and Florin Pichler, break down the fine details on the adidas AlphaBOUNCE.

This is what you need to know: 

It’s crucial for any athlete to be physically and psychologically prepared when they take the court, field, or track. Obviously, there are many factors that go into that preparation, and adidas understands the substantial role shoes play in feeling confident and ready to go. 

Adidas consulted with athletes in its roster like Harrison Barnes and DeAndre Hopkins to get an idea of what this feeling is like. 

“We wanted to create a product to answer that psychological desire,” Pichler says. “Which is obviously a little bit different to maybe how you normally design where you’re creating a product and then you’re building the story to the product.”

Many times, excessive branding on a sneaker can disrupt both its aesthetic and function. Not so with the adidas AlphaBOUNCE. 

“We wanted the fusing, the sort of forging to breathe, to really function,” designer George Robusti says. “So I don’t want to go placing branding [on the upper]. And of course, you can achieve that in different ways, but I wanted the forged ribs to really just behave and be left uncluttered.”

By placing the classic three stripes on the tongue and the badge of sport on the heel, adidas is able to allow the new FORGEDMESH technology to perform. There’s nothing to compromise or inhibit it. 

This attention to practical minimalism, while maintaining an aesthetic flair and upgraded functionality, fits nicely into the AlphaBOUNCE’s get-in-the-zone, get-in-the-flow story. You really shouldn’t be noticing your sneakers when you’re wearing them, and the Alpha ensures this type of subconscious comfort with its seamlessly integrated parts. 

Designer George Robusti met with James Harden—the face of the company’s basketball line—as well as high school basketball players from the Los Angeles area to gauge how effectively the shoe was able to transition between surfaces and sports. 

“The [high school athletes] were telling me what I wanted to hear, which was that they could see [the shoe] run from the training runs to the gym, all the way through to the street.”

Obviously, you may prefer to lace up a pair of basketball shoes during an actual school game, but think about those instances when you and your buddies spontaneously decide to play a pick-up game. You won’t have to worry about ruining your kicks or not being able to move around the court well because you don’t have the proper footwear. 

“There’s a lineage you can see from Ultra,” product developer Pichler says. “But at the same time, that unfamiliarity and disruptive look in the product is what we’re always trying to do to push those brand franchises forward.”

To really improve the functionality of a shoe, you need to innovate. That’s why adidas is featuring a completely new material in the AlphaBOUNCE’s upper called FORGEDMESH. The mesh will provide a custom fit with expansion and flexibility in the specific areas that need them most. 

The adidas Energy Boost 3 sells for $160. The adidas Ultra Boost sells for $180. These are all terrific shoes, but once you cross that $150 threshold, you may be less apt to pull the trigger on them.

To make the AlphaBOUNCE as accessible as possible, adidas has set the retail price at $100, making it an incredibly high-value shoe. Think about it: You get Bounce foam, FORGEDMESH (a completely new technology), as well as some of the specs found in the Ultra Boost, for nearly half the cost of the Ultra Boost.

“For us, when we took this on, when we started looking into this project, it wasn’t ever an approach from a price point of view,” developer Andy Barr says. He just wanted to come up with a product that looked good, performed at a high level, and told a unique story. 

The Core Black/Crystal White colorway on the AlphaBOUNCE was inspired by the custom hand-dotted pattern, utilized during the motion-capture technology process. The dotted traction pattern on the outsole is also a nod to Aramis Sensors used in the adidas Future lab. In essence, the Amaris motion technology (used by car companies and NASA) studies the movement of the foot to help create support and comfort that feels as natural as possible. Every pressure point of the foot while wearing the sneaker was scrutinized, which informed the placement of the FORGEDMESH and other support functions.