Youtube Instagram

2022 carbon plated shoes: best value for money

Carbon plated shoes are expensive. And prices keep on increasing. We all know that. But what we may not know is their intrinsic value. How much costs a gram of a supershoe? What is the best racing shoe for money? Let’s find out. 

 

I was doing some grocery shopping (buying black pepper to be very accurate) and I thought that it would be nice to compare shoes like we compare foods. And that is by volume or weight. 

 

So I took the MSRP in $ for the most popular carbon plated shoes and divided it by their weight in my size US11. The results are interesting for a few reasons:

 

  • the three “most popular” carbon plated racing shoes (Asics MetaSpeed Sky, Nike Vaporfly, Nike Alphafly) come out on top of the rankings – they’re all very expensive and quite lightweight;
  • the Atreyu The Artist confirms its status of an absolute steal at $100; and
  • most shoes (in my size) come at around $1 per gram, which to be honest sounds a little frightening. 
best value for money
best value for money racing shoes

But like someone pointed out, this comparison is a bit flawed. The best way to do it would be to multiply price by weight. And that’s because we all prefer lighter shoes, and most importantly…cheaper shoes. 

 

So I went ahead and did this exercise (chart on the left-hand side). Here again a few things are striking:

 

  • the two “thicc” shoes (Adidas Prime X and Nike Alphafly Next%) end up at the top of this chart. No big surprise, they’re very heavy compared to the other racers and they’re also the most expensive ones;
  • the Artist confirms how ridiculously good of a value it has (despite not being very light);
  • very interestingly the Asics MetaSpeed Sky drops way down in the rankings thanks to it’s very low weight.
Vaporfly Next%, Alphafly Next%, Metaspeed Sky, Adidas Adios Pro 2, Puma Deviate Elite, Saucony Endorphin Pro 2
Compare all these shoes and their full specs in our Shoe Comparator 
SHOE COMPARATOR
Youtube Instagram