WANT A FAST-RUNNING SHOE WITHOUT A CARBON PLATE? HERE’S MY TOP 5

Published: 02/06/2026 | By: Ben Felton

Carbon-plated shoes are great on race day, but they’re not always the best option for everyday running. The problem is, with so many running shoes dropping every other week, it’s hard to know what’s actually worth your money. Luckily, our ambassador and self-confessed shoe nerd Ben Felton has done the hard work for you. After running thousands of miles and testing some of the biggest shoes on the market, he’s picked out his five favourite non-plated options that still bring plenty of speed.

Carbon plates are all the rage in the fastest running shoes on the market. While they undoubtedly make you more efficient, with some shoes boasting up to 4–6% improvements across testing, allowing you to break PBs on race day, they are not the best option for everyone. The way the carbon plate works is by transferring the energy produced by your foot striking the ground into forward momentum, which is a feeling all runners should experience. Unfortunately, though, this ‘free speed’ can come at a cost.

The plate itself makes a running shoe very stiff and unforgiving. While research into injuries is still relatively limited, the rigid properties can certainly cause issues for runners if they overuse them, as the forces travelling up the leg are much greater. I know many runners personally who have had injury issues, especially newer runners who are unaware that they shouldn’t be doing all their runs in carbon shoes. They can also become very uncomfortable over long periods of running, so the list below could provide a great option for people training for and running their first marathon who are looking for a bit more comfort over raw speed.

My advice with carbon shoes is to use them sparingly, but that’s where the non-plated options can save the day when it comes to still feeling fast.

As a sub-elite runner, I personally only use carbon shoes for around 20% of my training, for interval sessions where I want to hit race pace and for race day itself. Given they aren’t super durable in their design, it also makes sense to save them for special occasions. For days when I still want to run fast, I look for what is recently being referred to not as super shoes, but super trainers. These shoes often have the same midsole foam as race shoes but without the plate, making them ideal for fast training runs.

Here’s my guide to the best on the market for those looking for that fast feeling but without the risk of running in carbons. In no particular order, let’s start with one of the best all-rounders money can buy.

In 2022, Asics released a shoe called the Superblast, which for many shoe reviewers like myself is still regarded as one of the very best of all time when it comes to versatility. If you want one shoe that does it all, easy runs, long runs, intervals, even a recovery walk in the park, this shoe can do it all better than most. 

 In 2026, the Superblast is now in its third iteration. Without declaring my full-blown love for this shoe, there really aren’t any flaws with the Asics Superblast 3, other than maybe the price tag, but even that can be argued against given its very good durability. The Asics Superblast 3 features a high stack height of FF Leap foam combined with FF Blast Plus. All you need to know is that it’s lighter, more responsive than before, fast, and very stable, which is rare for a shoe with such a high stack. If you have £199.99 to invest in a running shoe, I wouldn’t even bother reading about my other recommendations below. It really is that good. 

Next up we have the more affordable Adidas Evo SL. If you’re looking for a fast-feeling shoe, or even a race shoe on a budget, the Evo SL has your back at £130 RRP. At Sports Direct some colourways are now as low as £82 discounted, so act fast if you don’t mind a funky leopard print design. 

 This shoe features Adidas’ superfoam called Lightstrike Pro, found in their carbon race shoe, the Adizero Pro 4, but you guessed it, without the plate. The result is a very fast shoe, ideal for intervals, progression runs, or anything quicker in your training week. This takes the biscuit for many runners looking for speed, but it’s not as max-cushioned as some options, which takes me to Saucony’s answer to the Evo SL, the Azura. 

The Saucony Azura is a relatively unknown competitor, but certainly not one to overlook in the best non-plated running shoe category. This shoe sits at £140 and is more of an everyday running shoe that can also run fast, so if you’re looking for just that, let me tell you a little more about it.

It combines a huge 40mm stack of high-energy PEBA foam with a smooth, natural feeling underfoot. It’s very bouncy but without the stiffness of a plate, making it highly forgiving, comfortable for long miles, and surprisingly stable around corners. Of all the shoes on the list today, this is my most used in my current rotation, as I’m yet to have a bad run in it. If I’m totally honest, I didn’t expect to enjoy this shoe in my testing as much as I did, but I quickly racked up 100km in my first week of owning a pair.

The fourth shoe to consider, sorry to make things harder for you, but there are a lot of good running shoes out there in 2026, is, in my opinion, the best Nike shoe I’ve run in over the last five years, the Nike Vomero Plus, which is currently sitting at £114.99, down from £154.99.

When I got into running back during the COVID pandemic, for whatever reason I would only run in Nikes. I was a complete Nike fanboy, and this shoe brought back a lot of those fond memories. Now on my second pair, having run 500km+ in my first, the Vomero Plus is a worldie of a shoe thanks to the crème de la crème of running shoe foams, Nike ZoomX. It’s bouncy, it’s fast, and it’s incredibly fun. The only downside is that, due to its high stack, it can be a little unstable, so if you’re someone who requires support in your running shoes, I’d probably consider the other options.

And last but by no means least, the brand new ON Cloudmonster Hyper 3. That’s a lot of words for the name of a running shoe, but this shoe’s performance upgrade is worth considering. At £210, it’s the most expensive on the list today, but for some, it’s also the trendiest.

The shoe looks great, but it also performs very well for faster runs given it features a foam found in the Swiss company’s race-day shoe, the Cloudboom Strike. This foam-and-no-plate combo makes it my go-to for a long run with a fast finish. This shoe is a huge improvement on the original Cloudmonster Hyper and a shoe that just begs to pick up the pace. It’s a bit dangerous if you’re supposed to be taking it easy.

Plenty of options there, but ultimately these are all non-plated running shoes I’ve run literally hundreds of miles in. They’re all running shoes I would confidently recommend, so hopefully you can’t go wrong!