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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

HOKA Rocket X 3vs
PUMA Deviate Nitro Elite 3

Rocket X 3

£140

Typical street price · £220 RRP

39mm — road legal
Deviate Nitro Elite 3

£109

Typical street price · £200 RRP

38mm — road legal

Choose the Rocket X 3 if…

Nothing here separates it from the Deviate Nitro Elite 3 in your favour. On this data the other shoe answers every case at least as well, so buy this one only if you already know it fits you better.

Choose the Deviate Nitro Elite 3 if…

  • You want the lighter shoe: 175g against 200g, a 25g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • Money matters: it is selling around £109 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 marathon from 3:45:00

Time back
Rocket X 3: 145s–219sDeviate Nitro Elite 3: 145s–219s
Cost per second saved
Rocket X 3: £0.17Deviate Nitro Elite 3: £0.13

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
010203040503830
Deviate Nitro Elite 3

What you pay

Street price
Rocket X 3£140
Deviate Nitro Elite 3£109■

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

RRP
Rocket X 3£220
Deviate Nitro Elite 3£200

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

Cost per race
Rocket X 3£32
Deviate Nitro Elite 3£23■

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

Cost per second saved
Rocket X 3£0.17
Deviate Nitro Elite 3£0.13■

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

What it does

Estimated saving
Rocket X 3145s–219s
Deviate Nitro Elite 3145s–219s

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

Economy gain
Rocket X 32.9–4%
Deviate Nitro Elite 32.9–4%
Built for
Rocket X 310K · Half · Marathon
Deviate Nitro Elite 35K · 10K · Half · Marathon
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.
Deviate Nitro Elite 3The sane sibling to the Fast-R. Light, versatile, considerably cheaper, and easily the most underrated racer here.

How it is built

Weight
Rocket X 3200 g
Deviate Nitro Elite 3175 g■

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Rocket X 339 mm
Deviate Nitro Elite 338 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Rocket X 334 mm
Deviate Nitro Elite 330 mm
Drop
Rocket X 35 mm
Deviate Nitro Elite 38 mm
Foam
Rocket X 3PEBA
Deviate Nitro Elite 3NITROFOAM Elite
Plate
Rocket X 3carbon fibre
Deviate Nitro Elite 3carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Rocket X 3Yes (39 mm)
Deviate Nitro Elite 3Yes (38 mm)

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

Fit
Rocket X 3standard
Deviate Nitro Elite 3standard
Stability
Rocket X 3balanced
Deviate Nitro Elite 3balanced

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

Race life
Rocket X 3~280 km
Deviate Nitro Elite 3~300 km■

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

Data confidence
Rocket X 3estimated
Deviate Nitro Elite 3estimated

■ 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

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£109at Startfitness — £91 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.