Class Action: Adidas SpringBlade Running Shoes Come Apart

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Adidas America, Inc. was hit with a class action lawsuit in a New York federal court alleging that the Adidas SpringBlade running shoe is defective and it literally comes apart.

New York resident and plaintiff Edward Ruffo, explains in his Adidas class action lawsuit that the SpringBlade running shoe is supposed to be different compared to the typical running shoe.

“Most traditional running shoes feature an EVA midsole that vertically delivers energy return,” Ruffo explains in his class action lawsuit.

“In contrast, the Adidas SpringBlade running shoe features 16 forward angled blades made out of high-tech polymer. The elastic blades purportedly react to any environment, compressing and releasing energy to create an efficient, springy push-off. The supposed benefit of the SpringBlade is the concept of energy,” the Adidas running shoe class action lawsuit says.

The SpringBlade, which costs $180-$200 per pair, was marketed as a running shoe that contained “explosive” energy, which was supposed to “enhance the running experience.”

However, Ruffo claims that “despite six years of development and extensive marketing efforts to the general public, the sole of the SpringBlade was defectively designed and manufactured.”

Because of the way the shoe is designed, “the sole of the shoe is prone to failure.”

The Adidas SpringBlade class action lawsuit claims that when a person walks and runs while wearing the shoe, “the midsole is loaded and unloaded while flexing in multiple directions.” However, it is “these stresses to the shoe” that “are inherently trying to pull the components of the shoe apart.”

Ruffo says that “the design failure in question is at a location where two pieces of semi-rigid plastic are bonded together, which is especially problematic and prone to delamination.”

The New York man says that he bought more than one pair of the SpringBlade running shoes at Dick’s Sporting Goods and online at both Adidas.com and Amazon.com after he saw the marketing campaign for the shoes and read reviews in different publications.

“However, after only a few days of use limited to running on a treadmill, the sole of each pair of the plaintiff’s SpringBlades failed at the bonding between the two semi-rigid components at the forefoot flex area,” he claims in his Adidas SpringBlade class action lawsuit.

He says that he bought several pairs, which he only used when running on a treadmill. Ruffo also bought another pair to use when running outside.

“Unfortunately, the soles of every single pair of SpringBlades that plaintiff purchased failed at the bonding between the two semi-rigid components at the forefoot flex area,” the class action lawsuit says. In fact, the pair he bought to use outside “failed after a single use.”

Adidas has redesigned the SpringBlade, which it now sells as the SpringBlade Ignite. Ruffo claims that the shoe was redesigned “due to consumer complaints of sole delamination at the midfoot in SpringBlades.” The new SpringBlade sells for $129.99.

Ruffo is looking to represent a nationwide class and a New York subclass of individuals who bought the first model SpringBlade running shoes.

He is charging Adidas with breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, unjust enrichment, violating New York’s Deceptive Acts and Practices Act as well as consumer protection acts in other states, and violating Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act.

Ruffo is represented by Thomas Peter Guiffra of Rheingold Valet Rheingold McCartney & Giuffra LLP.

Counsel information for Adidas is not yet available.

The Adidas SpringBlade Class Action Lawsuit is Edward A. Ruffo v. Adidas America Inc., Case No. 1:15-cv-05989, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

UPDATE: On Sept. 2, 2016, Adidas won its bid to deny certification of a nationwide Class of consumers who allege the company’s Springblade sneakers are defective and fall apart after one or two uses.