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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

Nike Alphafly 3vs
PUMA Deviate Nitro Elite 3

Alphafly 3

£203

Typical street price · £285 RRP

40mm — on the limit
Deviate Nitro Elite 3

£109

Typical street price · £200 RRP

38mm — road legal

Choose the Alphafly 3 if…

  • You want the bigger return: 3.4–4.6% economy gain against 2.9–4%, and that gap widens the longer you are out there.
  • You would rather buy on measured numbers: this shoe's specs are manufacturer-confirmed, the Deviate Nitro Elite 3's are estimated.

Choose the Deviate Nitro Elite 3 if…

  • You want the lighter shoe: 175g against 218g, a 43g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • Money matters: it is selling around £109 against £203, and the time difference between them is smaller than the price difference suggests.
  • You want more races out of one pair: about 300km of competitive life against 250km.
  • You are racing 5K or 10K — built for it, where the Alphafly 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
Alphafly 3: 179s–260sDeviate Nitro Elite 3: 145s–219s
Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3: £0.23Deviate 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.

010203040504032
Alphafly 3
010203040503830
Deviate Nitro Elite 3

What you pay

Street price
Alphafly 3£203
Deviate Nitro Elite 3£109■

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

RRP
Alphafly 3£285
Deviate Nitro Elite 3£200

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

Cost per race
Alphafly 3£51
Deviate Nitro Elite 3£23■

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

Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3£0.23
Deviate Nitro Elite 3£0.13■

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

What it does

Estimated saving
Alphafly 3179s–260s■
Deviate Nitro Elite 3145s–219s

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

Economy gain
Alphafly 33.4–4.6%■
Deviate Nitro Elite 32.9–4%
Built for
Alphafly 3Half · Marathon
Deviate Nitro Elite 35K · 10K · Half · Marathon
Best use case
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.
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
Alphafly 3218 g
Deviate Nitro Elite 3175 g■

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Alphafly 340 mm
Deviate Nitro Elite 338 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Alphafly 332 mm
Deviate Nitro Elite 330 mm
Drop
Alphafly 38 mm
Deviate Nitro Elite 38 mm
Foam
Alphafly 3ZoomX with Air Zoom pods
Deviate Nitro Elite 3NITROFOAM Elite
Plate
Alphafly 3carbon fibre
Deviate Nitro Elite 3carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Alphafly 3Yes (40 mm)
Deviate Nitro Elite 3Yes (38 mm)

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

Fit
Alphafly 3standard
Deviate Nitro Elite 3standard
Stability
Alphafly 3balanced
Deviate Nitro Elite 3balanced

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

Race life
Alphafly 3~250 km
Deviate Nitro Elite 3~300 km■

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

Data confidence
Alphafly 3verified■
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£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.

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.