In looking back through our historical Altra posts, I was a little surprised by just how many we’ve actually covered over the years. As someone who doesn’t necessarily need or prefer a zero-drop, foot-shaped shoe, I tend to “forget” about Altra and leave those reviews to some of our other testers.
So while I may be a little thin on personal Altra experience, Run Oregon certainly isn’t.
Read all our posts about Altra here!
We’ve put plenty of Altra shoes through their paces over the years, and the Vanish Carbon 3 gave me a chance to see what the brand is doing with one of its fastest offerings from a slightly different perspective.
It was actually my absolute love for another naturally foot-shaped shoe—from a company I also hadn’t really given much of a shot myself—that led me to tackle the review of the new Altra Vanish Carbon 3, the brand’s latest racing shoe.
Looks:
The Vanish Carbon 3 comes in three colorways, and while Altra gives them fancy names, I basically see them as: all white, white with red accents, and a cool mixing bowl of whites and blues. Whatever you call them, they all have a pretty clean, race-day look.
And for a shoe built around Altra’s naturally foot-shaped fit, the Vanish Carbon 3 is surprisingly sleek. I was expecting something a little more “Altra,” if that makes sense, but this looks much more like a modern racing shoe than I anticipated. It’s streamlined, low-key, and honestly pretty sharp on foot.
Construction:
Obviously, for a company built around that aforementioned natural toe shape—which is still very much present here—and a commitment to zero-drop shoes, the Vanish Carbon 3 is one of the handful in Altra’s lineup that bucks the trend. The drop is 4mm and while that’s still on the lower side, it isn’t completely flat.
That may ruffle the feathers of the zero-drop purists, but I think it also makes the shoe a little more accessible. You get that extra room for your toes to splay naturally without necessarily committing to a completely flat platform. For runners who want or need a little more room up front but don’t necessarily want a zero-drop shoe, it makes Altra a bit more of a possibility.
According to Altra, lab testing showed the Vanish Carbon 3 improved running economy by 2.6% compared with the Vanish Carbon 2, putting it in the same conversation as some of the current super shoes on the market. Obviously, that’s an Altra claim and not something we can independently verify, but it’s an interesting number nonetheless.
Specs:
- Weight: 7.7 oz (M9);
- Stack: 40 mm / 36 mm
- Drop: 4 mm
Upper:
The upper is pretty standard race-day fare: lightweight, breathable, and designed to keep things moving without adding unnecessary weight. Altra uses a seamless engineered mesh here, and it provides a surprisingly decent amount of hold when paired with the softer, lightweight tongue.
With a shoe designed specifically for speed, weight is always a consideration, and that usually means hold and stability can be a bit hit or miss. I actually found the Vanish Carbon 3 to have pretty good lockdown. The lightweight upper and minimalist heel padding—both pretty typical of a race-day shoe—certainly play a role, but I also think Altra’s commitment to a wider platform helps. It gives the shoe a little more inherent stability, making it less reliant on the upper to keep everything in place than some other racing shoes.
The sawtooth laces are another nice touch. Once you get the fit dialed in, they do a good job of keeping the lacing from loosening or shifting while you’re running.
Midsole:
As you know, we don’t usually do deep dives into the tech here at Run Oregon, but there are a couple of construction features worth mentioning.
The first is the all-new, patent-pending split-toe carbon plate. Altra designed it to provide the snap and propulsion you expect from a carbon-plated shoe while allowing the big toe a little more engagement with the ground. For a company that puts so much emphasis on the toes and a natural ride (something that rigid carbon plates don’t really allow for) , that approach makes a lot of sense.
It also uses two layers of Altra’s FastRce foam, a supercritical PEBA foam that replaces the PEBA-EVA blend used in previous versions. There’s also a fairly aggressive rocker, which adds to the shoe’s forward propulsion. In fact, the rocker makes the shoe’s 4mm drop feel higher than that number would suggest. I sort of forgot about the stack height in those medium-distance pace pushing runs – which is good in my opinion.
Between the rocker and the carbon plate, I didn’t find this to be an especially soft or squishy ride—and that’s probably not a huge surprise. I’d put the Vanish Carbon 3 somewhere in the middle of the firmness spectrum. It’s not a bounce machine, but it’s certainly not a firm, unforgiving platform either. There’s enough cushioning for the distances this shoe is designed to tackle, while the plate and rocker keep things feeling quick and purposeful.
That said, runners with sensitive calves should probably ease into this one, especially if you’re planning to use it for longer distances. The combination of a low drop, aggressive rocker and carbon plate puts you in a pretty different place than a traditional trainer, and your calves may notice the difference before the rest of you does.
Outsole:
The Vanish Carbon 3 has more rubber than you typically see on a racing shoe. Essentially the entire lateral side of the outsole is covered, along with most of the forefoot and heel. There are some lattice sections and open spaces that expose the midsole, but there’s still a healthy amount of rubber making contact with the road.
Super shoes aren’t exactly known for being the grippiest shoes out there, but the combination of this substantial outsole coverage and the Vanish Carbon 3’s wider platform makes for a pretty stable race-day package. In fact, I’d put this near the top of the stability scale among the super shoes I’ve tried.
We’ve already heard that an eventual Vanish Carbon 4 may be looking to go even lighter, so I have to assume some of that weight savings could come from the outsole. Even if that’s the case, I think Altra has enough rubber here that future versions can afford to trim some without creating a durability problem.
Overall Impression:
I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure what to expect going into the Vanish Carbon 3. Altra isn’t usually the first brand I reach for, and the combination of a foot-shaped toe box and low drop isn’t necessarily what I look for in a racing shoe. But that’s probably what made this review so much fun.
The Vanish Carbon 3 doesn’t feel like Altra simply made a traditional super shoe and slapped a wider toe box on it. There’s a real purpose behind the design, and the result is a racing shoe that feels both fast and a little different from the norm. The 4mm drop makes it more approachable than Altra’s traditional zero-drop models, while the rocker and split carbon plate still give you plenty of that race-day snap.
You don’t have to be an Altra loyalist—or even a zero-drop purist—to find something to like here.
