adidas UltraBoost Light 'Dark Blue Cream'
Colorway: Dark Blue/Cream White/Core Black · Style code: HP9203 · Release date: March 19, 2023 · Price: $125 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: adidas UltraBoost Light 'White Dark Blue' (ID3285)
Boost's weakness was never energy return; it was mass. Thermoplastic polyurethane is dense compared with the EVA-based foams most brands use, so an Ultraboost felt excellent underfoot and heavy on the scale, and by the early 2020s that gap had widened as rivals moved to lighter super-foams.
Light Boost was adidas' answer, introduced on this model in February 2023 and rated by the brand at 30 percent lighter than the Boost that came before it. Testers put a UK size nine at roughly 314 grams against about 333 for the Ultraboost 22, a drop large enough that reviewers began treating the Ultraboost as a running shoe again rather than a comfortable lifestyle trainer. The rest of the recipe carried over: a Primeknit Plus upper, the familiar midfoot cage, the exposed foam sidewalls. It launched at 190 dollars, the line's usual price, and this colourway pairs a dark blue knit with a cream midsole so the foam itself reads as the lighter half of the shoe.