PUMA’s FAST-RB NITRO Elite 2 Is Laughably Illegal

The PUMA FAST-RB NITRO Elite is back, and it’s bigger, badder and more illegal than ever. With a stack height exceeding 40mm and two carbon plates, the new iteration is ineligible for World Athletics-sanctioned road racing, just like its predecessor.

Launched two years ago, the original quickly gained traction online by spitting in the face of race regulations with its titanic stack and propulsion system.

The FAST-RB NITRO Elite 2 – the ‘RB’ stands for ‘rule breaker’, naturally – builds on those conceptual codes, distinguished by a segmented PWRPLATE configuration so elaborate it’s genuinely difficult to tell where one side ends and the other begins.

Compared by one reviewer to running on pogo sticks, these sneakers aren’t for your everyday 5k dilettante. Rather than a practical proposition, they’re more a demonstration of what PUMA can do – and what might be in store next. A concept car, if you will.

Whether the brand can bend that technology to meet World Athletics’ criteria for professional racing in the immediate future remains to be seen, but for now, the FAST-RB NITRO Elite 2 offers a glimpse of what they’re cooking up in the labs at Herzogenaurach.

Romain Girard, PUMA’s vice president of innovation, says that disregarding the rulebook is part of the fun.

‘With the Fast-RB 2, we set out to take rule-breaking to the next level,’ he says. ‘We’ve created a shoe that delivers the highest energy return we’ve ever recorded in our testing, within an incredibly lightweight package. Two years of innovation, lab testing and collaboration with athletes have gone into refining the experience, bringing together groundbreaking performance and the pure joy of running.’

For more cutting-edge running sneakers, check out Mizuno’s 96g racer.