Adidas has unveiled the latest addition to the PureBOOST franchise with the new PureBOOST DPR running shoes. The German company claims these shoes offer an immersive urban running experience, and is for street runners, “who love the thrill of dodging city traffic, racing street lights and weaving through busy pedestrians.”

We’ll give Adidas this much – they’ve certainly managed to design something that looks different from the run-of-the-mill shoe, no thanks to the one piece circular knit upper, which starts around the midfoot. We can very easily see that this will be picked up by sneakerheads for casual wear.

The PureBOOST DPR comes with an 8 mm heel-to-toe offset - fairly flat without going for an all-out racer feel. The shoes further feature a wider forefoot, Adidas’ Stretchweb outsole, a heel fit counter system to support the foot and achilles, and of course Boost technology. Some runners swear by Boost, believing that there is an energy return that happens when the heel strikes the surface, as we first encountered in the Adidas Energy Boost 2 ESM.

Pieter Warnich, senior manager for Adidas Running SA, said: “We are seeing runners from all over the world exploring their cities and expressing their own creativity in the routes they choose and the challenges they take on. As a brand we wanted to build something purely designed for this type of runner, and loved the idea of creating a more adaptive running experience. With the Adidas Runbase boosters taking the lead with this new running shoe, we’re excited to see how they express their creativity on the streets of the CBD”.

As for cost, well, those looking to pick up the PureBOOST DPR in South Africa will first have to wait until the 18 of May, and then put a rather expensive R2 300 on the table. The shoes should be available at Own Retail stores, adidas.co.za, Total Sports, Studio 88 and The Cross-Trainer outlets.