Under Armour Velociti Elite 3 Review: The Chase Continues

Introduction to the Under Armour Velociti Elite 3

RYAN: It’s funny — just a few short months ago (like six weeks), I would have told you I’d never run in an Under Armour shoe. To date, that would have been totally true, and I fully expected to keep it that way. I mean, I’d rocked the Infinite Mega, which is like a casual-ified version of Speedland’s RX:FPY, but I certainly hadn’t run a single step in the dual-BOA’d, open-heeled monster truck of a shoe.

Then, the Velociti lineup arrived, and I mean the entire lineup. I went from having no familiarity with Under Armour’s footwear outside of watching Sharon Lokedi crush marathon after marathon in early versions of the Velociti Elite to suddenly getting my pick of the litter. And, like any well-rounded, training-conscious runner, I jumped right in with the fastest shoe I took out of a box: The Velociti Elite 3.

After all, this was the shoe that I had watched Ms. Lokedi wear when she broke the tape in Boston just a few months earlier. So of course I wanted it to be the first one I tried on — it had to be good.

Well, that and the fact that Under Armour had finally made some welcome changes for the third iteration of its supershoe. It finally dumped the hefty, rubbery Flow layer from the bottom of its Hovr Plus midsole, trimmed a little weight off the entire package, and swapped from a Warp 2.0 upper to a Leno Weave that looks all-around better. In my book, that’s all good stuff, especially when you’re trying to grab my interest.

What hasn’t changed, however, is Under Armour’s very interesting geometry. The Velociti Elite 3 sticks with the teeny-tiny 2 mm drop that its predecessor adopted, and it’s kind of something that has to be felt to be believed. It’s paired with an aggressive rocker in the forefoot — a curve so sharp that it almost wants to roll you forward before you’ve even made it out the door or locked in on GPS signal for your watch.

Oh, and since we’re talking about lacing up and getting on the road, I should mention that Under Armour switched from smooth laces to sawtooth ones, which is always welcome. So let’s pull ’em tight and see if I can get a little Sharon Lokedi magic to rub off on me.

Underfoot, I think it’s best that I work from the ground up. I couldn’t be happier that Under Armour has eliminated the Flow foam from this recipe, and you should be just as relieved. This is a move we’ve already seen a few times this year, with Under Armour donning full rubber on the bottoms of its Velociti Pro 2 and Velociti SPD, and I think it just simplifies the whole setup. There was no need to have a base foam that also acted as an outsole, especially when it wore down so very quickly. Now, the carefully placed panels of forefoot and heel rubber protect without adding nearly as much weight.

On top of that thin, grippy outsole sits two layers of supercritical Hovr Plus sandwiched around a full-length carbon fiber plate. Once again, it’s giving Saucony Endorphin. It has the geometry, it has the beads, and it has some of the bounce. I would say that the Velociti Elite 3 is a little firmer than Saucony’s original offerings, but it has the same foundation.

I generally think it works well enough for its intended purpose, too, which is to go fast. It might not be my personal choice for a marathon — I’m a softy boy — but you’re certainly not going to find a shortage of cushion or pop, especially if the Velociti Elite 3 works with your stride.

What we don’t like about the Under Armour Velociti Elite 3

RYAN: The thing is, though, I think a lot of people are like me: We want soft marathon shoes. We don’t want to feel the wear and tear by the end of 26.2, and I’m not sure how you avoid that in the Velociti Elite 3. I took this shoe for one of my usual weekly workouts, a nice set of seven 1200m repeats at marathon pace around the famed Patterson Park loop. It held up, that’s for sure, but I often felt like I was working on top of the shoe rather than with it. I would push, especially on a hill, and find that the Hovr Plus wasn’t necessarily pushing back.

Granted, I’ve also seen people put down absolutely incredible times in this shoe. I watched friends run PRs at Baltimore Running Festival and Sharon Lokedi dominate down the stretch to take the crown in Boston, and I figure they have to be doing something right. I’m not sure if it’s the low 2 mm drop or the firmness of the foam, but I just can’t see myself taking the Velociti Elite 3 at pace for much longer than 10 miles.

Oh, and then there’s the matter of price. If I’m looking at this as an uptempo workout shoe, I wouldn’t want to spend $250 on a pair. If it looks like an Endorphin Speed and kind of feels like an Endorphin Speed, I’d probably save myself the $80 price difference and buy a pair of Saucony’s purpose-built trainers. I think I’d feel less beat up after a workout in them, too. Then again, I know Under Armour has dreams of making this shoe compete with the likes of the Vaporfly and the Metaspeed Tokyo, so why would it position it as anything less than that?

Final thoughts on the Under Armour Velociti Elite 3

RYAN: So, uhh, here we are, with another Under Armour race shoe that’s near the podium but not quite on it. I do think the Velociti Elite 3 is the brand’s best effort to date. I think it has a better formula and a more aggressive look that makes me want to put it back on for another workout or a short race, but I still think it has its limits. The firmness and geometry simply won’t be for everyone, and those are two pretty essential pieces of the puzzle when you’re trying to set yourself up for race day.

I think I could best compare the Velociti Elite 3 to something like the Endorphin Pro 3, just firmer. Unfortunately for Under Armour, that shoe came out in 2022, so it’s hardly worth catching up to. These days, I’d much rather have the Nike Vaporfly 4 on my feet for its mix of bounce and weight, or the Brooks Hyperion Elite 5 for its much bouncier approach to a firm midsole. Heck, if you really want an aggressive shoe, go all out with the Puma Fast-R 3 — just don’t heel strike.

You can pick up the Under Armour Velociti Elite 3 for $250 from Under Armour by using the buttons below.