PUMA Men's Liberate Nitro Running Shoe

Product Information

The serious, almost austere counterpart to the Liberate, but one which delivers. This is how Velocity feels to me. After the torrent of praise for the Liberate, it might sound negative, but it's far from a bad shoe. It will be a good shoe for everyday training and those who prefer a little less flexibility, a little firmer cushioning, and more consistency. There is a clear lateral separation between the two layers (Nitro foam and EVA). Of course in hand one immediately indicates that the shoe is not in the same weight category as the Liberate and the scale confirmed it at 297g in my size. You can twist the shoe a bit at the front, but the flexion stops the closer you get to the EVA insert. Longitudinal torsion is possible but remains limited, quite normal for a “neutral” shoe with a reinforcement dedicated to stability. Note that the midsole gets narrower in the midfoot. You cannot feel it in the fit nor when running which is good. Underneath the midsole is a 4cm by 1.5cm deep hole within which you can see the carbon plate. The weight is here again guilty for killing a bit the Nitro foam fun, which cannot express itself fully here. Too bad because in my opinion Nitro and carbon can go hand in hand very well on a lighter shoe.

This translates to a narrower heel and a gradually widening midfoot, in addition to more stability (which apparently, women wanted, though not our women here at Believe in the Run). That stability aspect comes into play with a built-in footstrike guidance called RunGuide. That said, probably no company struggled more than Puma during the logistics debacle of Covid. For the better part of a year, the shoes would randomly go on sale, then disappear. After Molly’s performance in Tokyo, the Deviate Nitro Elite was just… nowhere to be found. For a long time. And then there was the Fast-R, the next generation of racing, which is again currently sold out, but was apparently available at some point.First hands on impressions of the Liberate point towards its lightness. To be honest, I found it even light when it still had its paper protection inside. Once the latter is removed, the weight is stunning. And indeed with a 212g weight in my size (about 6.49 oz / 184g in a US9, this is one of the lightest shoe I have run. (I can only think of the Next% as slightly lighter, obviously putting aside spikes and XC pairs). The other immediate reaction was to see how flexible the shoe is. You can twist it in all directions with your hands without any effort. Whatever the pace, the cushioning is perfect, thin so as to not to be cut off the ground, but sufficient not to feel big impacts, even on longer runs.

Jérémy : A good comparison to the Velocity, at a similar price, with similar qualities. The SL20's fit is better, and simpler. The qualities of cushioning and dynamism are similar too, but the SL20 is much lighter, albeit a little less cushioned. The Adidas model has my preference. Finally, good single-leg balance is key given that minimal shoes will not provide as much stability or guidance compared to traditional shoes. Working on being able to balance for AT LEAST 30 seconds with your eyes closed will demonstrate solid balance and proprioception.If you prefer to wear slightly more sturdy shoes on your easy days and long runs, the Liberate can still handle everything else. They’re a great example of a shoe that can be worn for the warm-ups and cooldowns that sandwich harder efforts. At 6.3 ounces in a men’s size 9, they’re as light as many racing flats, while still providing protection and an outsole that corners exceptionally. Puma Liberate Nitro sole after wear-testing Photo: Stacey Cramp Durability:

Performance: A (Fun and rather versatile ride, really light on the foot, functional for lots of different workouts and even daily miles) Jeremy used to be mostly a trail runner, but just likes to run whatever the surface, adding more and more triathlon to his practice. He runs any-distance trails (from 30kms to 160kms) and is not really interested in chrono. his only road reference is 36'25 on 10kms, and he finished 6th and 5th at SaintExpress 2017 and Ecotrail de Paris 2018. He usually runs between 50-120kms per week, plus around 8-10h ride. He's 1m78 tall (3.28ft) and weights 154lbs. Last year’s version was a heavier and firmer ride, two things that we generally disdain, and especially did in this shoe. Neither Meaghan nor Adrienne particularly enjoyed the ride of this shoe on account of both those things. While it’s not overly heavy on paper, it just feels bulky on the run. The supercritical Nitro midsole provided a responsive ride that embraced the simplistic joy of running. And they didn’t stop there, refining those models in concurrent versions, fixing the things that didn’t work and keeping the things that did. Oh, and they also put a race day shoe (Deviate Nitro Elite) on Molly Seidel as she took home bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. ROBBE: It seems like we’ve been working our way through the Puma lineup for awhile now, and while things are slowing down, they’re also getting faster. We started out with the somewhat-weird Puma Deviate Nitro (is it an easy day shoe or a fast shoe, who knows), then we moved on to the incredibly versatile Puma Velocity Nitro (the best of the bunch in my opinion), and now it’s tempo time with the Puma Liberate Nitro. The GoodThe rigidity removes the playful and supple, almost airy feel of the Liberate. Weight isn't much of an issue but because of the EVA insert, the Nitro foam can't deliver its full potential. Surprisingly, I found that even with a sole of 32mm at the rear and 22mm at the front, the ground feel is good. Cushioning is firm without being hard, and the stiffness is only horizontal and the midsole has some give to it vertically for cushion and rebound. NOTABLE FEATURES: We first saw this shoe in one of its early iterations at the Boston Marathon weekend last year, and it was a wild one for sure. While some brands like Mizuno are cutting out the heel section in race shoes, Puma see-sawed the other way with an aggressive toe cut-out. Oh, wait, it also includes an undercut heel as well. Like Alex, too much padding around the heel collar on the Velocity leading to a bit of discomfort on the run, in an otherwise comfortable upper. And it soaks up water making an already heavy shoe even heavier.