Diadora Gara Carbon 2 Review: Bellíssima on Race Day

Introduction to the Diadora Gara Carbon 2

ROBBE: There’s this thing with running shoes where progress demands change, like clockwork. Businesses survive on sales and consumer appetite is insatiable, so the need for something new dictates the seasonal release schedule. Which is why you’ll often get a really good shoe followed by a ‘meh’ update, or even worse– a total overhaul that nobody asked for or wanted. It’s the thing we fear the most as fans of running shoes– the double-edged sword that can surgically refine a mediocre model into a spectacular piece of footwear or, conversely, lop off the head of a perfectly fine running shoe. 

In other cases, an update is not so much an update, but a slight material change and updated colorways masked as a new shoe. This is especially true for smaller brands, who don’t have the research and development and risk tolerance for cranking out major changes year after year. When you’re producing a few thousand units of a shoe (as compared to the hundreds of thousands in, say, a Brooks Ghost), you can’t afford an entirely new round of lasts and prototyping rounds. Again, good and bad. Sometimes this will produce a lag in development and release (i.e. Tracksmith Eliot Racer), while other times it means a good shoe will remain a good shoe.

Such is the case for the Diadora Gara Carbon 2, a shoe that is really just the Diadora Gara Carbon 1, refined. The first version of the Gara Carbon was– quite honestly– a surprise. Mostly because Diadora’s comeback to running over the last half decade has seen its ups and downs. The original Mythos Volo remains one of my favorite shoes of all-time, mostly as a lifestyle shoe, but still a solid trainer. The Equipe Corsa was weird AF and mostly pointless, but a cool shoe nonetheless. The Mythos Vigore was big, but cushy and extremely comfortable. The Sestriere, a beautiful looking trail shoe, was one of the worst trail shoes I’ve ever worn so I flat-out refused to review it. Then there was the made-in-Italy Atomo V7000, an excellent all-around daily trainer with a premium price tag. 

Last year, Diadora went hard into race day with the uptempo Frequenza (again, a shoe I really enjoyed) and the original Diadora Gara Carbon. I wore that shoe for a 12-mile race last summer and had a great time in it, offering just the right amount of comfort and performance. It wasn’t the most aggressive shoe out there, but the Anima PBX was bouncy, the shoe was relatively light, and the French-made premium Matryx upper was outstanding. Yes, it was $300. Not the cheapest shoe out there (in fact, it’s the most expensive race day shoe outside of the Adidas Evo Pro 1), but it had its justifications. 

Taken from that review:

“The shoe is very light, coming in at over an ounce lighter than competitors like the Saucony Endorphin Pro 4. It has a legit Pebax SCF midsole (what they call Anima PBX) and its carbon fiber plate was sourced from the same factory used by Ducati motorcycles. A premium Matryx upper (known for its durability and breathability properties) wraps the foot, while tooth-style race laces finish off the package.”

Fast forward to last month, when the Diadora Gara Carbon 2 arrived. I was a bit confused, because it literally looked the exact same, material wise. The colorway floored us– the robin-egg blue with the color-outside-the-lines sketching of the logo was absolutely gorgeous. This right here is what a race day shoe should look like. But everything else looked identical. Probably because it mostly is. The only discernible difference between v1 and v2 is an upgraded version of the Matryx upper. Otherwise, everything remains the same: midsole, outsole, form, fit, function, and performance. So you can read the original review, or you can carry on. Mostly, it’s going to be the same.

Choose your own adventure.

JON: Up until a few years ago, I never associated Diadora with running. When they last had a role in running, it was before my time as a runner in the 90s. I still struggle not defaulting to soccer when someone talks about them. Flash forward to 2025 and you have a brand that has successfully re-established themselves in our little corner. Its latest entry is the second edition of the carbon plated racing shoe, the Gara Carbon. 

I did not run in the first edition, but heard about its praise second hand from Robbe. As an unapologetic Vaporfly and Alphafly stan, I am naturally skeptical when it comes to what other shoe companies envision in their race day shoes; I’m especially dubious when the price tag is higher than what I think is the best.

Unboxing, I was first greeted with a blue shoestring shoe bag and a card from Diadora with a numbered edition out of 3016 (I got 351!). The card went on to describe in great detail the background and design of the shoe. It was more like I was about to sample a bottle of the finest Chianti; carefully sourced using only the finest grapes from Tuscany. They went on to say the Gara Carbon was their “diamond”. This gave me a chuckle, but if it performed as good as it looked I was all in. 

This is one of the best looking shoes I have seen in quite some time. The diamond blue colorway was crisp, but not overwhelming and obnoxious. Reading more about it online, I was excited about the premium features. What stood out to me the most was the attention to detail put into the outsole; ensuring it would be a long lasting shoe. Heh, more on that later.

What we like about the Diadora Gara Carbon 2

ROBBE: I already said it, but it deserves to be said again: this shoe looks so good. The literally sketchy design is new and fresh and clean and bold. Finally, someone taking some risks in the design department and the whole thing paying off. In reality, Diadora has always been good about this. Their colorways are consistently some of the best in the game; as pure foot fashion, they’re hard to beat.

It’s killing me that I have to rewrite my v1 review, but it really is the exact same. That’s not a bad thing– I still thoroughly enjoy this shoe and the ride and really everything about it. The Anima PBX is squishy without falling into soft territory, producing a noticeable energy return that gives you the faster paces you’re looking for. It’s a very pleasant sensation through the stride, providing a smooth transition, mile after mile. Again, if you just want a shoe that can act as a race day shoe, lightweight long run shoe with faster paces mixed in, or a straight tempo shoe, this is a good Swiss Army Knife for all of those things.

The Matryx upper is the major change here, and really, it’s a minor change. The fit is pretty much identical to the first version, maybe even slightly better. I felt like there was a bit of extra material in the toe box in v1, which seems to be taken care of. It was such a minor thing that I’m not even sure it’s noticeable. All that to say, the fit of the upper is pretty outstanding. As always, I’m a huge fan of the sawtooth-style race laces.

I find myself reaching for this shoe more often than I thought I would. It borders on super trainer territory, which is probably why I love it. It’s an especially good shoe for someone running a 3:30+ marathon.

JON: Echoing what has already been said, this is a great looking shoe. Not one I would wear out to the Discoteca, but definitely a high consideration for race day fit. I found it performed quite well on what I put it through. 

The Matryx upper is incredibly comfortable, breathable and fits great. There was plenty of room in the toe box and the material was as resilient as a pair of trail runners. It wrapped snugly around my foot and I had no issues with hot spots. I saw no need to size up or out. The heel lockdown was perfect. This was a big plus, since I was disappointed in the lack of an extra eyelet that could have been leveraged for a runner’s loop. Lastly, can we just have all brands use these types of laces?

The ride was quite pleasant and could adapt to my needs. The Anima PBX midsole was plentiful and made things incredibly light. It provided a soft ride, but the carbon plate was able to propel me forward with ease. The 5 mm drop had me mostly lifting off with the ball of my feet and allowed for some easy transition without scorching my calves.

It really shined on long runs and workouts. I found it easy to push into the next gear and pick up the pace. The combination of the carbon plate and soft midsole gave me a fast comfortable ride with some pep to it. 

It didn’t feel awkward when I would warm up or cool down at a slower pace for a workout. I wouldn’t ever think of using these for recovery or an easy day, but it was refreshing to know that it could be done. Some race day shoes feel awkward to go easy in let alone walk around in before/after your run. 

What we don’t like about the Diadora Gara Carbon 2

ROBBE: As I mentioned in my original review, while I really can’t find much to dislike about this shoe, if there’s one negative thing about it, it’s this: it’s not the fastest or lightest race day shoe. It’s not aggressive or snappy off the toe, it doesn’t have a scooped plate with a rocker geometry through the midsole. The bouncy Anima PBX keeps you rolling along just fine at faster paces, but it’s not a true speedster in the same way that the Nike Vaporfly 3, Adidas Adios Pro 4, Asics Metaspeed Sky, or even Hoka Cielo X1 2.0 are. If you absolutely want that snappy feel in a shoe, then go with one of them. But for most people, this shoe will work just fine.

The $300 price point is certainly a lot. Sure, there’s justifications for it– low production run (probably less than 3,000 units), premium materials you won’t find in any other road shoe (i.e. Matryx upper), and name-brand Pebax. It’s a statement shoe. But still, $300 is a lot, no matter how you look at it.

JON: I’d like to speak to the people who designed the Duratech 5000 outsole. From Diadora’s website:  “Special wear-resistant rubber compound assuring a far higher wear resistance than standard rubber, offering an effective solution to shoe heel wear.”

When I saw this, I was cautiously optimistic; but was unfortunately let down.

But first, a disclaimer: I am notoriously hard on running shoes due to my size (6’3’’ and 225 pounds) and stride. Outsoles typically wear down much faster for me, especially in the outer heel area. I can stretch out the life of most shoes just fine, but there are a lot of super shoes that I’ve had to retire prematurely due to how unevenly it would wear down. Ultralight midsoles just melt away once that thin layer of the grippy rubber goes.

It held up fine at first. I took it on some uptempo efforts and a long run right off the bat and didn’t see too much wear. Once I started doing workouts, it didn’t take much time to start melting away. 

After one session of 2-mile repeats, the rubber outsole began peeling off and was hanging on by a thread. Superglue fixed this temporarily. I did another long run in them and it held up. My next workout (6 x 1 mile), it fell off and the midsole started to melt away like butter. After just shy of 80 miles, the shoe looked like it’d gone through hell. As I said, I’m an outlier when it comes to eating shoes, so once the rubber goes in a lateral heel, it all starts shredding quickly. Such is the nature of exposed outsoles and weight savings at the expense of durability.

Again, this issue isn’t particular to Diadora; such is the nature of heavy lateral heel striking versus race day shoes and super foams.

The bigger concern is that the upper also started to separate from the upper area of the midsole and the detached tongue was folding inward. It looked like a high end shoe when I got it, but wore down entirely too fast; especially for the price tag. Lastly, while it does work as a solid uptempo shoe, the shoe really did not respond well when I would run faster than a 7 minute pace in them. 

I already had a hard time digesting how much Diadora was charging for this. Since it wore down at such a rapid rate, I was pretty disappointed.

Final thoughts on the Diadora Gara Carbon 2

ROBBE: Again, this is a redux of v1, which I’m totally fine with because I thought that was a pretty great shoe at the time (and still think so). Because Diadora is a smaller company, they can’t afford to miss, so a lot of thought was put into the design and development of the shoe. The final product in v1 was pretty great, so there’s no reason to change it beyond some minor tweaks to the upper and design. I personally didn’t have any of the wear issues that Jon had with the shoe, though I admittedly only put in around 30 miles in my testing. I’m also 80 pounds lighter with more of a midfoot strike, which makes a huge difference. If you don’t have that aggressive heel strike and you’re looking for a race day shoe that’s a bit more accommodating of all paces, I feel like the Gara Carbon 2 is just a solid shoe that excels in versatility, comfort, and performance for training and races of all distances. Having one shoe that can do it all is worth a lot. Maybe even $300.

JON: Back in 2019, before I started writing reviews for Believe in the Run, I let Thomas commandeer an old pair of Vaporfly Flyknit 4% for a photo series he was doing. The outsole was long gone and it was almost down to the carbon plate on the heel. We all had a laugh at commenters saying I dragged my feet too much and questioned my running ability due to how the shoe had worn down unevenly. 

I recently picked up a pair of Alphafly 3 in the Guy Fieri flame colorway for faster paces and race day. I’d like to think 5+ years later I lift my feet up more and have made conscious efforts to increase my cadence. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but laugh at how quickly it fell apart. 

As for the Gara Carbon 2, don’t get me wrong, there was a lot to like about it! It did great on uptempo runs and the workout sessions gave me added confidence while thick into my current training cycle. They are light and the colorway is a dream. I just felt let down when it started to break down so early, even with my abnormal footstrike.

Look, I get that I am an outlier and that Diadora didn’t have me in mind when designing these. I understand this is a limited run from a premium brand with outsourced components; hence the steep price tag. I also know this isn’t going to be a super trainer that will last hundreds and hundreds of miles. Its main purpose is race day. I just expected way more for $300. 

I can’t help but think this is a larger problem with the current generation of super shoes. It makes me wonder if advancements in cutting precious grams are having adverse effects for certain types of people. Even with my outlier footstrike, I have Alphafly 1s that are in much better shape with 2.5 times more miles and races in them than the Gara Carbon 2. 

If you are around my frame, I’d pass on these in favor of something cheaper and sturdier that won’t fall apart before you even toe the line. For me, that’s the OG Nike Alphafly or Asics Metaspeed Sky/Edge Paris. If you have a mid-to-forefoot landing, then by all means, go wild on the Gara Carbon 2. 

You can pick up the Diadora Gara Carbon for $300 by using the shop links below.