Nike Alphafly 3 Vs Vaporfly 3

Welcome back to another super speedy review. So in the last one I told you all about the brand new Nike Alpha Fly 3. Today I'm gonna compare it to the Vapor Fly 3. I have run in previous versions of both shoes so I have written about things like that below to give you more details, more comparisons. If you're new around here I am Coach Amanda Brooks of Run to the Finish. I have been running for 20 plus years and coaching for well over a decade and in that time written thousands of articles and tested a lot of shoes. So let's dive into this particular comparison. The way I always kind of describe it you can see almost from the bottom running in the Vapor Fly is a very narrow feel. It is almost like running on a rail is the best way I can describe it. You feel like you are needing to run on this very narrow space and the shoe itself you can see from the bottom it's just more narrow where the Alpha Fly is going to give you a little bit more stability. So when you're trying to decide which shoe would be best for racing the Alpha Fly is your go-to for the marathon. It's that much more stable feel that you want to have over the course of 26.2 miles. You will notice even the elites could go for the Vapor Fly but they are pretty much going for the Alpha Fly. That was not the case when this all first started. It was kind of all over it but now this is what they're going for. The Vapor Fly fantastic 5k, 10k and probably half marathon. I don't know it might kind of depend on how I was feeling for the day. I very much like the Vapor Fly. It is a squishy is always the word I want to say but it has great bounce and it feels fast. You're getting great bounce out of the Alpha Fly too but it doesn't always just feel as fast as the Vapor Fly. That's the best way I can tell you to describe that. Other little things to know. So one of the things I admit I don't love with the Vapor Fly is that the tongue can come up a little bit high. That's something that bugs me on a lot of shoes. I don't like when the tongues come up really high and it is soft mostly but it is not padded and so at least for me I need to have on the right socks for that to remain comfortable. The Alpha Fly is just a sock fit so there's no moving tongue here. It is just the sock fit. I've never had any issue with that coming up too high. Tongue here is entirely detached so not a sock fit. Both of them are going to have that super breathable upper. I mean it's so see-through you can see your fingers whatever socks you're wearing through it. Same on both of them. The Vapor Fly has the carbon plate. The Alpha Fly has both the carbon plate and these air pods and so the idea is that it is the combination of those two that make it a faster, you know, world record shoe. It does hold currently the world record for the marathon. So Kelvin Kipton for anyone who's now looking Chicago. What else? What else is different between these two? Okay the other thing I will tell you is in terms of the sole. So neither one is going to have a very durable sole and particularly I think the Alpha Fly 3 folks are going to get annoyed with this foam being exposed on the bottom. On the Vapor Fly 3 I actually returned a pair that I had because after six miles the whole bottom was peeling off so that annoyed me. Now I get it. They're trying to take away any and all possible weight but I still need the shoe to hold up for more than six miles especially at this price range. So it is there is no grip here. Maybe a tiny amount of grip here. No grip. No grip. Neither of these are shoes that I would wear in a super wet race day. Maybe this one more so because at least it has it up front. Also on this one you can see you've got kind of that deep groove in the bottom whereas this one just one tiny little space. So it's just going to be a little bit of a different feel between the two. But that is your quick rundown in comparison. As noted I'll link to more below but if you have questions as always please drop them. Other shoes you want to know about? Let me know.