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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

Nike Alphafly 3vs
Saucony Endorphin Pro 4

Alphafly 3

£203

Typical street price · £285 RRP

40mm — on the limit
Endorphin Pro 4

£120

Typical street price · £210 RRP

36mm — road legal

Choose the Alphafly 3 if…

  • You want the bigger return: 3.4–4.6% economy gain against 2.7–3.8%, and that gap widens the longer you are out there.
  • You want more shoe underneath you late on: 40mm against 36mm, which is protection over a long race rather than speed over a short one.
  • You race off a strong, repeatable stride and want the more aggressive ride rather than the safer one.

Choose the Endorphin Pro 4 if…

  • 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 £120 against £203, and the time difference between them is smaller than the price difference suggests.
  • You want more races out of one pair: about 350km of competitive life against 250km.
  • You are racing 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–260sEndorphin Pro 4: 131s–206s
Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3: £0.23Endorphin Pro 4: £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
010203040503628
Endorphin Pro 4

What you pay

Street price
Alphafly 3£203
Endorphin Pro 4£120■

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

RRP
Alphafly 3£285
Endorphin Pro 4£210

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

Cost per race
Alphafly 3£51
Endorphin Pro 4£22■

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

Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3£0.23
Endorphin Pro 4£0.13■

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

What it does

Estimated saving
Alphafly 3179s–260s■
Endorphin Pro 4131s–206s

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

Economy gain
Alphafly 33.4–4.6%■
Endorphin Pro 42.7–3.8%
Built for
Alphafly 3Half · Marathon
Endorphin Pro 410K · 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.
Endorphin Pro 4The stable, sane super shoe. Lower stack, wider base, far less demanding than the flagships and much longer lasting.

How it is built

Weight
Alphafly 3218 g
Endorphin Pro 4217 g■

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Alphafly 340 mm
Endorphin Pro 436 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Alphafly 332 mm
Endorphin Pro 428 mm
Drop
Alphafly 38 mm
Endorphin Pro 48 mm
Foam
Alphafly 3ZoomX with Air Zoom pods
Endorphin Pro 4PWRRUN HG
Plate
Alphafly 3carbon fibre
Endorphin Pro 4carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Alphafly 3Yes (40 mm)
Endorphin Pro 4Yes (36 mm)

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

Fit
Alphafly 3standard
Endorphin Pro 4standard
Stability
Alphafly 3balanced
Endorphin Pro 4stable

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

Race life
Alphafly 3~250 km
Endorphin Pro 4~350 km■

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

Data confidence
Alphafly 3verified
Endorphin Pro 4verified

■ 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£119.99at Run North West — £90.01 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.