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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

Brooks Hyperion Elite 5vs
Nike Alphafly 3

Hyperion Elite 5

approx £151

Estimated street price · £230 RRP

39mm — road legal
Alphafly 3

£203

Typical street price · £285 RRP

40mm — on the limit

Choose the Hyperion Elite 5 if…

  • You want the lighter shoe: 196g against 218g, a 22g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • You want something more forgiving. This is the steadier platform — useful if your form goes late, or if you are on your feet longer.
  • Money matters: it is selling around £151 against £203, and the time difference between them is smaller than the price difference suggests.
  • 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 2.8–3.9%, and that gap widens the longer you are out there.
  • You race off a strong, repeatable stride and want the more aggressive ride rather than the safer one.
  • You would rather buy on measured numbers: this shoe's specs are manufacturer-confirmed, the Hyperion Elite 5's are estimated.

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
Hyperion Elite 5: 138s–213sAlphafly 3: 179s–260s
Cost per second saved
Hyperion Elite 5: £0.19Alphafly 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.

010203040503931
Hyperion Elite 5
010203040504032
Alphafly 3

What you pay

Street price
Hyperion Elite 5~£151■
Alphafly 3£203

A tilde marks an estimate: no shop we read is currently listing that shoe, so the figure is RRP less the discount comparable shoes are actually selling at.

RRP
Hyperion Elite 5£230
Alphafly 3£285

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

Cost per race
Hyperion Elite 5£34■
Alphafly 3£51

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

Cost per second saved
Hyperion Elite 5£0.19■
Alphafly 3£0.23

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

What it does

Estimated saving
Hyperion Elite 5138s–213s
Alphafly 3179s–260s■

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

Economy gain
Hyperion Elite 52.8–3.9%
Alphafly 33.4–4.6%■
Built for
Hyperion Elite 510K · Half · Marathon
Alphafly 3Half · Marathon
Best use case
Hyperion Elite 5Unfashionable and quietly good. Firmer and more controlled than most of the field, which suits heel strikers and heavier runners.
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
Hyperion Elite 5196 g■
Alphafly 3218 g

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Hyperion Elite 539 mm
Alphafly 340 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Hyperion Elite 531 mm
Alphafly 332 mm
Drop
Hyperion Elite 58 mm
Alphafly 38 mm
Foam
Hyperion Elite 5DNA Flash v2
Alphafly 3ZoomX with Air Zoom pods
Plate
Hyperion Elite 5carbon fibre
Alphafly 3carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Hyperion Elite 5Yes (39 mm)
Alphafly 3Yes (40 mm)

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

Fit
Hyperion Elite 5standard
Alphafly 3standard
Stability
Hyperion Elite 5stable
Alphafly 3balanced

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

Race life
Hyperion Elite 5~280 km■
Alphafly 3~250 km

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

Data confidence
Hyperion Elite 5estimated
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

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.