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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

Nike Alphafly 3vs
Saucony Endorphin Elite 2

Alphafly 3

£203

Typical street price · £285 RRP

40mm — on the limit
Endorphin Elite 2

£149

Typical street price · £250 RRP

39.5mm — on the limit

Choose the Alphafly 3 if…

  • You want the bigger return: 3.4–4.6% economy gain against 3–4.2%, and that gap widens the longer you are out there.

Choose the Endorphin Elite 2 if…

  • You want the lighter shoe: 199g against 218g, a 19g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • Money matters: it is selling around £149 against £203, and the time difference between them is smaller than the price difference suggests.

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–260sEndorphin Elite 2: 152s–233s
Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3: £0.23Endorphin Elite 2: £0.20

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
0102030405039.531.5
Endorphin Elite 2

What you pay

Street price
Alphafly 3£203
Endorphin Elite 2£149■

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

RRP
Alphafly 3£285
Endorphin Elite 2£250

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

Cost per race
Alphafly 3£51
Endorphin Elite 2£39■

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

Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3£0.23
Endorphin Elite 2£0.20■

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

What it does

Estimated saving
Alphafly 3179s–260s■
Endorphin Elite 2152s–233s

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

Economy gain
Alphafly 33.4–4.6%■
Endorphin Elite 23–4.2%
Built for
Alphafly 3Half · Marathon
Endorphin Elite 2Half · 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.
Endorphin Elite 2Superseded by the Elite 3, which means it is now one of the best-value top-end racers you can find if you catch it discounted.

How it is built

Weight
Alphafly 3218 g
Endorphin Elite 2199 g■

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Alphafly 340 mm
Endorphin Elite 239.5 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Alphafly 332 mm
Endorphin Elite 231.5 mm
Drop
Alphafly 38 mm
Endorphin Elite 28 mm
Foam
Alphafly 3ZoomX with Air Zoom pods
Endorphin Elite 2IncrediRUN
Plate
Alphafly 3carbon fibre
Endorphin Elite 2carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Alphafly 3Yes (40 mm)
Endorphin Elite 2Yes (39.5 mm)

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

Fit
Alphafly 3standard
Endorphin Elite 2standard
Stability
Alphafly 3balanced
Endorphin Elite 2balanced

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

Race life
Alphafly 3~250 km■
Endorphin Elite 2~240 km

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

Data confidence
Alphafly 3verified
Endorphin Elite 2verified

■ 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£149at Startfitness — £101 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.