Adidas Terrex EVO SL Trail - First Run
Edit: Thanks to u/nausarus who apparently listened better than I did at the demo and picked up that they're apparently actually called the Agravic SL. I also found an active listing on Backcountry with that name with specs. You can apparently even buy them right now? Pricing is $159 in case it disappears.
I got a chance to demo the new EVO SL Trail this morning and I thought I'd give some initial impressions since I imagine some folks are curious about fit, feel, etc. in advance of the launch (The rep quoted June 1st). I only ended up running about three miles in these, which normally wouldn't consider enough to make a post on, but I felt like I had enough varied enough trail conditions to render some judgement.
Fit
My impression was that these run a bit large. I normally wear M11.5 in almost everything including the original Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed (not Ultra). I started out with an M11.5, but I felt like they were too big and went down to an M11 and those felt perfect. For what it's worth, I own a pair of Boston 12's in M11.5 and they're too long as well, so maybe these fit closer to those. I unfortunately have only briefly tried on the original Evo SL's so I cannot compare fit to those. Width seemed fine and much better than the M11 Speed Ultra 2's I tried on right after. (FWIW, I don't think I have wide feet since I fit in M11.5 Puma shoes without width issues, but the Ultra 2's gave me width and stability issues).
Upper
I have a real dislike for Adidas's minimal uppers on my Agravic Speed's and Boston 12's. Both feel too hard to get on and then too tough to get lockdown on once you actually do get them on. I'm happy to report that the EVO SL Trail upper is way better. It feels like a normal trainer upper in all the best ways. Given my limited time in the shoe I can't promise there aren't issues that might arise after longer runs or how durability might fare, but my initial impressions were very good. Even pushing the downhills the shoe stayed put and that's with minimal time spent dialing in the lace tightness. Laces were the lightweight, but not troublesome at all. Much better than the Boston 12 laces which I hated and replaced and arguably better than my Agravic Speed 1's.
Midsole
I will be the first to admit I was beyond skeptical when the EVO SL Trail leaked late in 2025. I honestly spent a few minutes trying to debunk the video as a hoax since it seemed weird that only one random Instagram account had video of a shoe that was apparently in a booth at TRE. It's no secret that the EVO SL was a huge success and Adidas seemed like they were willing to release every possible variant they could to exploit that. Since everyone who ran in the SLs complained about their stability and existing Terrex shoes like the Agravic Speed Ultra also had stability issues, I was very concerned about how the SL Trail would be.
Thankfully it appears Adidas actually did a full redesign of the shape of the mid-sole and from what I could tell there were no stability issues. My route took me over chunky gravel, up a steep technical climb, down a slightly technical (rooty, muddy) descent and on short portions of flat dirt and pavement. The midsole handled everything really well. The bounce definitely made the descent more challenging then most of the trail shoes I have, but I never felt out of control. Hiking up a steep climb also felt completely fine. Absolutely no issues with stability.
The bounce of the mid-sole was fantastic on the runable sections of trail. I've never run in a trail shoe that felt like this. My closest comparison is probably the Nike Zegama 2 (which I just did 24mi in a on Sunday), but even that's way more subdued. The rocker is also really evident here. I did a long stride on flat, compact dirt near the end of my run and was able to get below 5:00/mi pace which is similar to what I'd get on roads in decent trainers with similar effort.
Outsole
The outsole is a full-coverage Continental outsole similar to many other Terrex shoes. In my experience this is roughly as good as Vibram and I'd have no issues taking it on all but the most technical of trails (where the mid-sole would probably be more of a disqualifier). Lug depth appeared to be 3-4mm, but I don't see official specs yet.
Conclusion
As mentioned already, I took these on a 3mi loop with a group. For those local to Seattle, the loop left from High Point Trailhead, ascended the powerline road (chunky gravel), climbed Cable Line for about 350ft, and then descended the TMT trail to West Tiger trail before returning to the lot. This is a really perfect loop for shoe testing as you get a bit of everything the PNW has to offer other than maybe the loose rocks of something like the West Tiger Trail. The shoe handled it all really well. I was especially impressed at how in control I felt descending the narrow, rooty, switchback-filled trail.
Although I think it can obviously handle reasonably technical trails, I think this shoe will really shine on trails that are extremely runnable, but need a little more grip and stability than a road shoe could offer. One nice thing about the big chunk of bouncy foam is that it made the lugs almost imperceptible on pavement. I usually find trail shoes uncomfortable on pavement, but didn't see an issue in my short stints on pavement. I wouldn't call these a true road-to-trail shoe because of the larger lugs, but I think they could work well in that context.
All in all, I loved these shoes. After three miles I would've been willing to trade any trail shoe in my collection for them (and probably any road shoe). I went for a short run in the Agravic Speed Ultra 2's right afterward and liked the EVO SL trail much, much better (I probably needed a M11.5 in the Ultra 2's though). I'll be curious to hear thoughts from people once they start getting miles on them, but if I didn't already have so many trail shoes and wasn't such a stickler for waiting for sale prices I'd probably pick up a pair on release day.