Skip to content
40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

HOKA Rocket X 3vs
New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3

Rocket X 3

£140

Typical street price · £220 RRP

39mm — road legal
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3

approx £118

Estimated street price · £180 RRP

33mm — road legal

Choose the Rocket X 3 if…

  • You want the bigger return: 2.9–4% economy gain against 2.6–3.6%, and that gap widens the longer you are out there.
  • You want more shoe underneath you late on: 39mm against 33mm, which is protection over a long race rather than speed over a short one.
  • You want a conventional fit rather than a narrow or wide last.
  • You are racing Half marathon or Marathon — built for it, where the FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3 is not.

Choose the FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3 if…

  • You want the lighter shoe: 170g against 200g, a 30g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • You have a broad foot, or your toes spread as a long race goes on.
  • Money matters: it is selling around £118 against £140, and the time difference between them is smaller than the price difference suggests.
  • You are racing 5K — built for it, where the Rocket X 3 is not.

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 10k from 45:00

Time back
Rocket X 3: 33s–51sFuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3: 29s–44s
Cost per second saved
Rocket X 3: £0.18FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3: £0.17

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.

010203040503934
Rocket X 3
010203040503329
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3

What you pay

Street price
Rocket X 3£140
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3~£118■

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
Rocket X 3£220
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3£180

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

Cost per race
Rocket X 3£7.50
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3£6.32■

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

Cost per second saved
Rocket X 3£0.18
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3£0.17■

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

What it does

Estimated saving
Rocket X 333s–51s■
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v329s–44s

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

Economy gain
Rocket X 32.9–4%■
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v32.6–3.6%
Built for
Rocket X 310K · Half · Marathon
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v35K · 10K
Best use case
Rocket X 3HOKA’s legal racer, and much the better shoe for anyone who actually needs to comply with the rules. Balanced and predictable.
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3A rare thing — a short-distance carbon racer with room in the toe box. Excellent for 5K and 10K.

How it is built

Weight
Rocket X 3200 g
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3170 g■

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Rocket X 339 mm
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v333 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Rocket X 334 mm
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v329 mm
Drop
Rocket X 35 mm
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v34 mm
Foam
Rocket X 3PEBA
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3PEBA FuelCell
Plate
Rocket X 3carbon fibre
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Rocket X 3Yes (39 mm)
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3Yes (33 mm)

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

Fit
Rocket X 3standard
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3wide
Stability
Rocket X 3balanced
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3balanced

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

Race life
Rocket X 3~280 km
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3~280 km

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

Data confidence
Rocket X 3estimated
FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3estimated

■ 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£140at Interval Running — £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

No retailer we can read publishes a live price for this shoe, so we cannot check your size. The links below go to each retailer’s own search, where they show the current price and what they hold.

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.