We’ve come a long way since Nike ruled the pavement in big city marathons. Seemingly every brand has a super shoe and the runners who can contend for podium places. In fact, we scoped out the feet of the top runners at this year’s Boston Marathon and found that only two of the top 10 men were wearing the Swoosh. The women fared better, with four lacing up the new Vaporfly 3.

But the day belonged to Adidas: the top four men were all flashing three stripes, and three of the top 10 women wore the same Adios Pro 3 shoes. There were some other surprises among the best running shoes.

Read on to find out who else got into the top placings this year.

Top Men at the 2023 Boston Marathon

1st — Evans Chebet, 2:05:54

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “solar red”

Evans Chebet claimed his second consecutive Boston win in a flashy orange pair.

2nd — Gabriel Geay, 2:06:04

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”

3rd — Benson Kipruto, 2:06:06

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”

4th — Albert Korir, 2:08:01

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”

5th — Zouhair Talbi, 2:08:35

Asics Metaspeed Sky+

Test editor Morgan Petruny reviewed this speedster when it came out.

6th — Eliud Kipchoge, 2:09:23

Nike Alphafly 2

Nike told us “Eliud is wearing items from the upcoming Eliud Kipchoge Collection, coming this fall.” Until then, you’ll have to settle for the standard color of the shoe.

7th — Scott Fauble, 2:09:44

Nike Alphafly 3 prototype

We’ve seen this shoe pop up in other races lately, including the Tokyo Marathon. And, although it’s a prototype, it’s likely the “development” shoe that’s on World Athletics’ list of approved shoes—under Manuals & Guidelines, “Dev 163” is approved until December 3, 2023. No information about the shoe’s availability has been provided yet so, for now, you’re stuck with the Alphafly 2.

8th — Hassan Chahdi, 2:09:46

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “solar red”

9 — John Korir, 2:10:04

Asics Metaspeed Sky+

10 — Matthew McDonald, 2:10:17

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 “pulse mint”

3rd American (11th) — Conner Mantz, 2:10:25

Nike Alphafly 2

We included Mantz here to round out the top three American runners. Mantz went way back to the original Alphafly. (Spy that pointy heel.) In January, we saw him testing out a black prototype of the Alphafly 3 at the Houston Half-Marathon (search Mantz on marathonfoto.com for pics). The current model, the Alphafly 2, received some considerable tweaks from what he wore in Boston.