RUNNING SHOES ARE getting faster, and Puma’s latest race day shoe, the Fast-R Nitro 3, is aiming to take the crown as the speediest on the road. The German brand soft-launched the model at the Boston Marathon last week, alongside a study that claimed testing shows the Fast-R Nitro 3 provides significant gains in running economy compared to its rivals.
I had a chance to check out the racers in Puma’s lab to understand how sports scientists measure performance (you can read more about that here)—but there’s a lot more to a shoe than how it handles in a controlled environment. Most runners are much more focused on how their kicks will respond in race day conditions on the road (as they should be!).
So I took the Fast-R Nitro 3 out for some miles, including a rainy day 5K training run and a race through the streets of Boston. Here’s what I thought after putting the fast racing shoes to the test.
The new racer’s sleek design catches the eye, even amongst super shoe peers with bulbous forefoot shapes and sky-high foam stacks. The Fast-R Nitro 3 has a segmented midsole, and plenty of foam on the forefoot (the total stack height is 40 mm, keeping it competition legal per World Athletics guidelines, with an 8 mm drop). The rear segment ends well before the back of the heel, as if the back end was clipped off. This forces the wearer immediately forward, whether they’re just walking or pushing the pace; that midsole shape, carbon fiber plate, and hyper-responsive foam put the Fast-R Nitro 3 in the category of shoe whose design dictates the way its wearer will run by propelling them forward. This won’t be the best shoe for beginners (and Puma does have a less-intense carbon plate option for those types of runners, the Nitro Deviate Elite 3)—but more experienced racers will most likely have a better experience.
My first thoughts with the shoes on: the Fast-R Nitro 3 is ridiculously springy. The foam isn’t overly firm, but it’s not too soft, either; I could feel slight depression and recoil with each step. The upper is light, transparent mesh that locks down better than I expect. The whole shoe weighs 170 grams, or six ounces, which is lighter than most other models on the market other than adidas’s $500, single-shot Adios Evo Pro 1 at 4.9 ounces (and at $300, the Fast-R Nitro 3 is also priced on the top end of the super shoe market). The segmented midsole looks funky, but I didn’t feel wobbly walking around. The way the foam stack ends before the heel forced me to put my weight onto my forefoot—which reminded me of wearing sprint spikes in college. I was able to keep up with my marathon pace with plenty of energy during the lab test, but while I was on the stationary treadmill, I felt like I had the shoes on a leash. I wanted to push the pace even more.
I almost had to laugh at the propulsion the first time I took the shoe out on a short tempo run. I wasn’t trying to push up to my race speed just yet, but once I got my feet under me in rhythm, it was difficult to stay within the conservative pace I set out to run. It was a windy, rainy day, but I still zoomed along my route. The upper doesn’t do much to keep the water out, but my feet weren’t feeling heavier, and the sole’s grip (usually one of the first spots sacrificed to cut weight on race shoes) was surprisingly reliable as I took corners and weaved around the few pedestrians out in the rain. I finished my 5k run at almost the same pace I ran for a race just over a month before, but I put forth significantly less effort. Sure, there were other factors that likely contributed to my improvement here—but the difference in how the shoe feels are significant.
My next run in the Fast-R Nitro 3 was in a competitive environment. I laced up for a road race in Boston. The event required me to make my way to three checkpoints around the city, then finish near the Marathon’s finish line—so it was the ideal environment to test the shoe as I struggled to make up my own route on Google Maps as I went, taking corners at speed, stopping and starting when I hit each checkpoint, and dodging clueless revelers on the city streets on the sprint to the finish down a packed-out Boylston Street. I might have struggled with navigation, but the shoes thankfully didn’t let me down. My legs were considerably fresher than I expected as I pushed my pace to catch up to other runners, and I was able to finish strong.
Should You Buy the Puma Nitro Fast-R 3?
Running in this shoe is flat out fun. The Nitro Fast-R 3 enters a rarefied space as a model I’d wholeheartedly recommend as an experience as much as a tool—for a specific type of person. Like the Adidas Adios Pro 4, this is going to be most useful for runners who log miles at a pace of eight minutes per mile or faster. If you are that speedy and you prefer a less-intense ride with softer foam (think the Tracksmith Elliot Racer), the Nitro Fast-R 3 might not be for you, either.
I do have two other concerns: price and lifespan. The Nitro Fast-R 3 is among a class of extra-premium race day shoes—think the On Cloudstrike LS and Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo—that offer a streamlined ride for an extra-premium price above the $250 to $285 range. There are more expensive running shoes (Adidas holds the crown in the space at $500 for its Pro Evo line), but Puma sticking a $300 price tag on the Nitro Fast-R 3 puts it into the top tier. Runners eager for PRs are clearly game to shell out extra dollars, but they have plenty of serviceable options available for $25 to $50 less.
I’ve not put enough miles to have a great gauge of the Nitro Fast-R 3’s durability. So far, the shoe holds up better than I’d expect, with just a bit of wear on the tread even after my rainy run. But I was surprised to see Puma’s own specs estimating its lifespan at only 300 kilometers (around 186 miles, significantly lower than the general 300-mile range given for most running shoes). There are other models meant to serve as single-shot PR chasers (Adidas again, with the Adios Pro Evo), so this isn’t new, but most runners aren’t going to invest so much for limited mileage. The Nitro Fast-R 3 will be best used as a tool for hitting fast times for races, not a multipurpose option for different runs.
Will the Puma Fast-R Nitro 3 become the new standard for super shoes? I don’t know, but I can tell you the results of a lab test won’t be the only reason. The running world is driven by results on the road, and what people see performing in the competition. There could be a world where major races are flooded with Pumas—much like the early days of the super shoe age when even athletes sponsored by other brands snuck Nike’s shoes onto the course—but that will only come if the sport’s fastest are setting PRs and winning races wearing them. What I can say is I had a hell of a good time running when I had them on my feet.
Brett Williams, NASM-CPT, PES, a senior editor at Men’s Health, is a certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.
