Nike | Men’s Alphafly 3 Blueprint Road Racing Shoes

Advice for Road Runners: The Nike Men’s Alphafly 3 Blueprint Road Racing Shoes should provide cushioning, energy return and inspiration for your marathon.

This colourway is part of the Nike Blueprint Pack. The Blueprint colourway is inspired by Nike’s co-founder, Bill Bowerman, who – in the words of Nike – created “the blueprint for serving athletes”.

Underfoot Feel

The Alphafly 3 are designed to be very propulsive, as:

1. Two Air Zoom units help to return energy;
2. A full-length carbon fibre plate helps to propel you forward; and 
3. Nike’s ultralight ZoomX foam provides a lot cushioning.

Quite simply, the Alphafly 3 should help your feet and legs to feel fresher for longer in the marathon. It is also worth noting the slightly wider carbon fibre plate that is present in the Alphafly 3 – as this helps to increase stability.

Upper Fit

Nike’s Atomknit upper is very breathable, and the material should help to support your feet even when there there is multidirectional pressure on them. 

The integrated knit tongue with lofted padding helps to limit lace pressure. 

Whilst the upper has a sock-like fit, the upper can stretch to accommodate foot swelling.

Ideal Run Type

The Nike Men’s Alphafly 3 Blueprint Road Racing Shoes are best for marathon running. However, they can also be a great choice for shorter distances such as the half-marathon. Their purpose could easily be explained as helping you to run faster for longer. They do this by working to propel you forward while trying to keep you feeling fresh for as long as possible.

We recommend getting used to these shoes during some faster training sessions, but mainly keeping them for race day. 

Technical Features

• Approximate weight: 218 grams (based on a men’s U.S. size 10)
• Drop: 8 mm

Sizing Advice 

Shoe size is a personal preference and everyone’s feet are different, but we want to ensure you avoid any pain or discomfort from bruised toenails, rubbing, blistering or pins and needles.

Your running shoes should have enough width to allow you to spread your toes and should have some space at the front (we recommend having a half to one thumb’s width of space from the end of your longest toe to the front of your running shoes).

This usually means that your running shoe will be at least a half size bigger than your regular shoe size though this can vary from brand to brand.