PUMA Releases a Second Super Shoe That Breaks World Athletics Rules

PUMA has made a second version of the super shoe it designed to sit outside World Athletics’ rules. The FAST-RB NITRO Elite 2, announced Friday, goes on sale Wednesday, Oct. 28, for €350 ($392), and PUMA’s own launch material states that it is not legal for racing.

The reason is built into the midsole. PUMA has fused two carbon-fiber plates together inside its NITROFOAM Elite foam, and World Athletics allows a competition shoe only one rigid plate. The company hasn’t given a stack height for the new model, so it isn’t yet clear whether the shoe also goes past the 40mm ceiling for road racing. Its predecessor went well past it.

That first FAST-RB came out in August 2024 at $400, with 58mm of foam and three plates, which Marathon Handbook noted at the time put it 18mm and two plates beyond what the rules allow. PUMA made only 1,000 pairs, and a laced version followed in January 2025 in another run of 1,000.

The sequel looks like a more practical shoe on paper. PUMA lists it at 250g in a UK size 8 and 206g in a UK 4.5, with an 8mm drop and a rated lifespan of 200 miles (320K). The woven upper is lighter and more breathable than before, and the shoe will reach more markets, with Latin America joining the U.S., the U.K., Central Europe, the Nordics, Japan, China, Thailand and Australia.

Most of PUMA’s case for the shoe comes from its own lab. Romain Girard, the company’s vice president of innovation, said in the announcement that “we’ve created a shoe that delivers the highest energy return we’ve ever recorded in our testing,” and PUMA says internal studies put its running economy ahead of every other road shoe in the brand’s range. No figures came with that claim. When PUMA launched the race-legal FAST-R NITRO Elite 3 in April 2025, it pointed to a University of Massachusetts Amherst study led by biomechanist Wouter Hoogkamer that measured a 3.15 percent running economy improvement over the previous model.

How It Compares With the Shoes Elites Race In

Racing shoes that meet the rules have spent the past two years shedding weight. Adidas’s Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 weighs about 97g in a U.S. men’s 9 and costs $500. Sabastian Sawe wore it in London in April when he ran 1:59:30, the first sub-two-hour marathon in a record-eligible race, and all six podium finishers in Berlin wore it too. Nike’s Alphafly 4 goes on sale Oct. 29 at $280 and is listed at 188g, while PUMA’s own FAST-R NITRO Elite 3 sells for $300 at 170g.

At 250g, the FAST-RB 2 is heavier than every one of those and has more in common with a small group of plated shoes built past the limits on purpose. The closest match is Adidas’s Adizero Prime X3 Strung, which has a 50mm heel, weighs 281g and sells for about $300, according to a RunningShoesGuru review. Hoka’s Skyward X, launched in 2024 at $225, pairs a carbon plate with a 48mm stack and is sold as a trainer.

Who Can Race in It

For most runners the rules are unlikely to come up. UK Athletics’ guidance applies the shoe regulations to every race held under its rules, club events included, but asks officials to use discretion at fun runs and races that don’t count toward rankings, and it leaves responsibility for compliance with the athlete. The exposure sits with runners racing for prize money, rankings or records, where a protest or an official’s check can end in disqualification.

Triathletes, on the other hand, have less room to play with. IRONMAN adopted World Athletics’ shoe limits after the 2022 world championship in Kona, and shoes over 40mm or with more than one rigid plate are grounds for disqualification at its events.

The FAST-RB NITRO Elite 2 will be sold on PUMA.com, in selected PUMA stores and through select retailers from Oct. 28. PUMA has not said how many pairs it made this time.