Here is my struggle. Adidas promotes itself as an industry "pioneer" in sustainability/ethical practice. Here is their corporate guidance on that very topic.
Yet this shoe has been made to last what, 40 miles? A "breaking in" period followed by one marathon and then what? Well you toss it in a landfill because the midsole foam has totally compressed and/or sheared off the bottom and adidas pat themselves on the back after making 150+ margin points on a $50-$55 landed shoe.
Hey - I'm not some sanctimonious zealot that lives a perfectly circular life of minimalism and perfect environmental circularity but I try my best. Big difference is I'm not out here claiming I do and then profiting off the complete opposite.
As for the actual shoe? Understand what $500 is buying you. Carbon-infused rods aren't special. Almost every nylon/plastics supplier have options with carbon fiber content which make their different grades of material stiffer. Really the difference between this and their other adizero offerings is simply a less dense foam - hence the disclaimer of the "familiarization period and marathon" because what simply happens is that the more open (less dense) foam cell structure will just burst or break down faster and shear away on the pavement. So the foam is a different variant of the current lightstrike foam - how this commands another $250-$300 is beyond me.
From the performance side, okay there is a weight saving which improves running economy, but conversely the foam is much softer and compliant so don't forget Newtons third law here because these shoes are only going to dampen/reduce the force a runner can put into the ground, which is in turn less efficient. So I would guess that at best the net outcome for these product in terms of performance benefit is zero.
The "one race shoe" from a marketing standpoint was done by Nike 20 years ago. Big meh. Honestly I wouldn't even really care because people get sucked in to buying far too expensive, stupid stuff they don't need and won't help them all the time (perfect example old white men and road bikes) - except for how blatantly hypocritical and contradictory this is of the brands "pioneers in sustainability" "pledge" which is just straight bullsh-t.