Adidas Adizero Evo SL vs Saucony Endorphin Speed 5:
Which to Choose

On paper these two are close cousins — both use a PEBA-class foam (Adidas's Lightstrike Pro versus Saucony's PWRRUN PB) and both deliver a soft-but-lively ride that only truly wakes up when you pick up the pace. The defining structural difference is the plate: the Endorphin Speed 5 runs a full-length semi-rigid winged nylon plate that guides and smooths transitions, while the Evo SL relies on foam alone for its rebound, giving it a more direct, less mechanically "rolled" feel. That shows in ride character — the Saucony carries you through toe-off with a plate-driven propulsion, whereas the Adidas rewards a quick, purposeful footstrike with pure foam spring. Weight is genuinely different: the Evo SL comes in around 224 g in a men's US 9 against roughly 241 g for the Endorphin Speed 5, so the Adidas feels the nimbler, snappier of the two, which fits its shorter-distance bias. Stack and geometry diverge too — the Evo SL sits near 39 mm heel / 33 mm forefoot at a 6 mm drop, while the Endorphin Speed 5 measures about 37 mm heel / 27 mm forefoot at a stated 8 mm drop (closer to 10 mm on the caliper); the practical upshot is the Adidas has more forefoot cushion and a lower, more midfoot-encouraging offset, while the Saucony's higher drop and wider 37 mm platform suit heel-and-midfoot strikers logging longer miles. Use case follows the design: the Evo SL is happiest at 5K, 10K, and the half, with the 10K as its sweet spot, whereas the Endorphin Speed 5 stretches from 10K up through the marathon, with the half as its sweet spot and enough forgiveness for long marathon-training days. Both wobble slightly at very slow jogging speeds thanks to tall, soft neutral platforms, and neither offers pronation support.