In a world filled with super shoes and intriguing options, the Nike Vaporfly 3 is the best race day shoe we've found. The trifecta of ZoomX foam, a carbon plate, and a lightweight upper helps create a special combination for fast races. This isn't a shoe for easy runs, but it's the one we turn to on the starting line.

Claims of mechanical doping World Athletics rules say "shoes, however, must not be constructed so as to give athletes any unfair assistance or advantage" but many critics argue that the Vaporflys do give an advantage, some even consider the Nike Vaporfly shoes as a form of technological or mechanical doping.

The outsole of the Nike Vaporfly 3 is thinner, but I haven't had any issues sliding around because of it. It will affect the durability, and I don't see the Nike Vaporfly 3 lasting more than 100 miles. The Vaporfly 3 is designed to run fast, and that's precisely what you should do.

An independent study published in 2022 by Joubert compared different brands of super shoes and found that the Nike Vaporfly improved running economy by about 2.7 percent at speeds of 16 kilometers an hour (or 6:02 mile pace) compared to a control shoe.