Diadora Gara Carbon 3

The Diadora Gara Carbon 3 is a marathon racing shoe designed for speed and efficiency. Priced at $320, it competes with shoes like the Cielo 3 ($275) and SC Elite v5 ($265). While v2 of the Gara Carbon was just an upper update, v3 comes with a more dialed in upper, a weight reduction of about 15 grams, an offset heel designed to add some stability, a lateral cutout and a slightly more aggressive rocker with the same AnimaPBX foam. We were surprised to find that it has only 36mm of foam in the heel, which is lower than comparable models while still being on the heavier side of marathon race shoes, at 317 grams in our Men’s size 10.5. The fit was better than previous versions, but the tongue felt plasticky. Out on the run we were disappointed to find that the foam felt very soft, similar to the previous versions, and that during the warm-up and cool-down, at easier efforts, it felt like we were having to fight over the foam and that the heel was too squishy and soft. At faster efforts, when picking up the pace, it definitely felt better to be up on the forefoot. However, for $320, we would have liked it to feel more innovative—faster and more aggressive or more smooth and easy to run in across a variety of paces. This one is hard to recommend with all of the good racers out there with softer foams at a much lower price point.