Shoes with carbon fibre – or at least some kind of plate – are leading the line ups of loads of running shoe brands these days and the latest to stick one in the midsole is the HOKA ONE ONE Carbon X. Jim Walmsley recently laced up the Carbon X to smash the 50 mile world record, while Eliud Kipchoge popped on the Nike Vaporfly Next % to break the London Marathon record. And that’s drawing inevitable comparisons between the two. But are they really trying to do a similar job? I get into the details and pit the Carbon X vs Vaporfly Next % to find out.
Carbon X vs Vaporfly Next %
The HOKA ONE ONE Carbon X vs Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next%: Price, weight and details at-a-glance
What are they for?
Having run in both, there’s clearly some cross over here but in my view, these two shoes probably work best when they’re being used to chase different goals.
The HOKA Carbon X:
- Probably more versatile than the Next% due to pricing, durability and the fact that they’re more forgiving when your form buckles a bit under fatigue.
- While the average runner could certainly use them to run a fast marathon, I think they really come into their as a training shoe for those faster, longer threshold runs where you want a fast show but probably not a minimal race shoe.
- The average runner could use Carbon X for everything from a 10k up to an ultra, though you’d stop short of trails.
The Nike Next %:
- Definitely a racing shoe. Unless you run like Eliud Kipchoge and have a steady supply of shoes and/or cash, you’re unlikely to train in these.
Price:
- Nike Next % – £239.99 / $250.00
- Carbon X – £160.00 / $180.00
Weight:
- Nike Next %: 198g in UK 9
- Carbon X: 241g in UK 8.5
Heel-to-toe offset (drop)
- Nike Next %: 8mm
- Carbon X: 5mm
Sole sensations
Of course Nike and HOKA are not the only horses in this particular race to find the very best sole technology. I recently wrote a piece for Runner’s World UK that looks at how all the leading brands and paying closer attention to their bottom bits to make and how each is trying to deploy innovative design to help us run faster, longer and more efficiently.
