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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4vs
Nike Alphafly 3

Adizero Adios Pro 4

£176

Typical street price · £230 RRP

39mm — road legal
Alphafly 3

£203

Typical street price · £285 RRP

40mm — on the limit

Choose the Adizero Adios Pro 4 if…

  • You are racing 10K — built for it, where the Alphafly 3 is not.

Choose the Alphafly 3 if…

  • You want the bigger return: 3.4–4.6% economy gain against 3.2–4.3%, and that gap widens the longer you are out there.

What does this
mean for you?

Every figure below is recalculated from your race and your current time. The gap between two shoes is not fixed — it grows with how long you are on your feet.

Over marathon from 3:45:00

Time back
Adizero Adios Pro 4: 165s–240sAlphafly 3: 179s–260s
Cost per second saved
Adizero Adios Pro 4: £0.21Alphafly 3: £0.23

Ranges, not promises. Both figures are against a standard trainer, and the honest answer for most runners is that the difference between two shoes of this class is smaller than the difference a month of decent training makes.

Every number.

010203040503933
Adizero Adios Pro 4
010203040504032
Alphafly 3

What you pay

Street price
Adizero Adios Pro 4£176■
Alphafly 3£203

What the shoe is actually selling for across the shops we read, not its RRP.

RRP
Adizero Adios Pro 4£230
Alphafly 3£285

List price. Almost nobody pays it for a race shoe.

Cost per race
Adizero Adios Pro 4£43■
Alphafly 3£51

Street price divided by the races the foam stays fast for.

Cost per second saved
Adizero Adios Pro 4£0.21■
Alphafly 3£0.23

The whole-life question: what each second of race time costs you.

What it does

Estimated saving
Adizero Adios Pro 4165s–240s
Alphafly 3179s–260s■

Against a standard trainer, over the distance and time set above.

Economy gain
Adizero Adios Pro 43.2–4.3%
Alphafly 33.4–4.6%■
Built for
Adizero Adios Pro 410K · Half · Marathon
Alphafly 3Half · Marathon
Best use case
Adizero Adios Pro 4The best value at the very top of the market. Within touching distance of the Evo 2 for performance at half the price and twice the life.
Alphafly 3Still the reference marathon shoe. The Air pods give a propulsive forefoot that nothing else quite replicates, and the wider platform makes it manageable late in a race when your form has gone.

How it is built

Weight
Adizero Adios Pro 4210 g■
Alphafly 3218 g

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Adizero Adios Pro 439 mm
Alphafly 340 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Adizero Adios Pro 433 mm
Alphafly 332 mm
Drop
Adizero Adios Pro 46 mm
Alphafly 38 mm
Foam
Adizero Adios Pro 4Lightstrike Pro
Alphafly 3ZoomX with Air Zoom pods
Plate
Adizero Adios Pro 4carbon fibre
Alphafly 3carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Adizero Adios Pro 4Yes (39 mm)
Alphafly 3Yes (40 mm)

World Athletics caps road racing shoes at 40 mm of stack.

Fit
Adizero Adios Pro 4standard
Alphafly 3standard
Stability
Adizero Adios Pro 4balanced
Alphafly 3balanced

Neither is better in the abstract — it depends on your stride.

Race life
Adizero Adios Pro 4~260 km■
Alphafly 3~250 km

How long the foam stays fast, not how long the shoe survives.

Data confidence
Adizero Adios Pro 4verified
Alphafly 3verified

■ marks the better figure where one is genuinely better. Fit, foam, drop and stability carry no mark — they depend on your foot and your stride, not on which shoe is superior.

In your size.

Where to buy

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£150at Runningbear — £80 under RRP

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.

Where to buy

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£199.99at Run North West — £85 under RRP

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.