Adidas Pulseboost HD Winter test & review - High-performance running shoe?

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I’ve tried Adidas running shoes before, and Adidas is most famous for its Boost midsole material. I’ve tried both the Solar Boost and the Solar Drive before, which both have a Boost midsole.

Recently, Adidas came with Boost HD. No, not High Definition, but High Density. This sounded like a great idea; Boost is a great midsole material, so why wouldn’t you want more of it in the same midsole? Adidas first released the Pulseboost HD. After that comes the Pulseboost HD Winter.

The Adidas Pulseboost HD Winter is a road running shoe with a 10 mm forefoot stack and an 18 mm heel stack, which gives it an 8 mm drop. It’s a neutral shoe that weighs 290 grams in the women’s model, and it has a water repellent knit upper.

The Pulseboost HD Winter has a knit-like upper, but it is made of ballistic nylon, which is supposed to keep out most of the cold and some of the water and snow that comes with winter running.

Although on the outside, it is quite a rough knit, on the inside, it is a bit smoother. It does help with the cold, I’ve had other running shoes where my toes got really cold while running outside in colder conditions and I didn’t have that issue in this shoe.

The tongue and heel collar are slightly padded. The tongue is semi-detached, and most overlays seem to be glued onto the upper rather than stitched. There is an internal heel counter which is enforced on the outsole of the heel, and there are enforcements on either side of the toes.

The Pulseboost HD Winter felt a bit roomier than the Solar Drive, but this might also have been due to the fact that I had trouble getting the proper lockdown in the Pulseboost HD Winter.

Instead of punched out eyelets, there is a nylon double-layered band stitched onto the upper of the shoe, and the laces are laced through the loops of the band. The laces are also pretty thick and rough and feel a bit like a rope.

Instead of pulling either side of the upper together over the tongue (like a regular lacing system), it is just pulling on the band, and it is making the fabric of the upper fold over on itself, which would create a hotspot. So my only solution is keeping the laces a bit looser. The huge label on top of the tongue also isn’t helping with the lockdown. It’s difficult for the sides of the upper to slide over the label.

The midsole technology is made out of the Boost material. However, they’ve compressed them, which actually gives you a firmer and a stiffer midsole than a regular boost.

Some runners found the Ultraboost midsole to be a bit too mushy, and that’s why Adidas developed the Boost HD. There is still some bounce to the boost, but it’s definitely a lot firmer than the regular Boost material.

Lastly, the Adidas Pulseboost HD Winter’s outsole is something I’m probably the most impressed with, and that’s not something I often say about an outsole. It's quite a bit of Continental rubber, hence why this shoe is quite heavy, but it provides fantastic traction.

It’s made of continental rubber with some firmer rubber on the lateral and medial side of the toes. There are some square holes in the outsole to provide flexibility, which seems to work since the flexibility is quite good, given the full rubber outsole.

Marijke
RunRepeat Expert