Puma Deviate Nitro Pure after 200 miles
Context first.
82kg, 195cm runner with mild pronation on 1 foot. Run 50 miles per week, 36 minute 10k, 2:57 marathon back in the day, currently in 38 minute/3:20 shape.
Bought the Puma’s pretty much on release and have not got around 200 miles in them. Spoiler, the intended use case has not turned out to be what I am now using them for.
These were bought as replacement for my Evo SL’s. I loved the Evo’s, but the instability gave me some ankle issues and exacerbated an already slightly dodgy knee. So what I wanted the Pure’s to be was a lively, up-tempo shoe that I could use for a range of faster runs, be that tempo, intervals, or when I just wanted to run hard and have fun.
The first run was underwhelming. They are firm, and they lacked the responsiveness I wanted when the pace went up, they also felt quite big compared to the Evo’s even though the weights are similar. I tried them a few more times for those faster runs and they just didn’t give me what I wanted. I kind of accepted that I’d made a bad call and that they would end up as dog walking shoes.
Sunday mornings are when I run long, typically 16-18 miles, normally slow, but often with a bit of pace in parts. It’s generally a mix of road and trail, but as those in the UK will know, we’ve had a hot summer with little rain and so the trails are baked hard, I also don’t live anywhere with anything technical. Think fire roads, canal towpaths, hard forest tracks, edges of farmers fields, that kind of thing. The joy of these runs is that you don’t quite know what you’re going to get when you turn up, there’s a group of us who take turns picking the route and you never know what mood people will be in so pace is harder to judge in advance too. I took the Puma’s out for one of these runs.
And let me tell you, they were superb. The firmness worked in their favour on the varied terrain, and they seem to feel better as the run wears on. They’re stable off road, and the outsole is superb in all conditions. They’re really protective too, you don’t feel beaten up after long runs and they’re really seem to eat up mileage. That firmness give some stability which is useful off road, and useful at the end of a longer run when your form goes a bit.
They have now become my default long run shoe as they just work well and you don’t need to think. Unless I know the run will be fast I’m reaching for them over my Superblasts and my Kipstorm Tempo’s. I’ve run 20 miles in them, spent 3 hours on feet, they’re just brilliant.
In conclusion. No, they’re not an Evo SL replacement, and if that’s what you want then look elsewhere. But they are a brilliant long run shoe for mixed terrain when you don’t know what to expect. They’ve gone from nearly being demoted to dog walking to being my go to long run shoe..