Puma Velocity Nitro 3 vs Puma Velocity Nitro 4:
Which to Choose

The headline difference is weight and what drives it. The Velocity Nitro 3 comes in at around 275g in a men's US 9; the Nitro 4 drops to roughly 224g — a reduction of about 50g, which is a lot to shed in one generation and is immediately noticeable at pickup and over a long run. That weight saving is not a trick of thinner cushioning — stack height and the 10mm drop are unchanged — but a change in how the midsole is built. The Nitro 3 uses a dual-density setup, pairing the lively nitrogen-infused Nitro foam with a firmer EVA-based carrier underneath, which is why it reads as lively-but-grounded with a fair amount of ground feel that some runners find a touch firm on long days. The Nitro 4 ditches the carrier layer for a single full-length slab of nitrogen-infused NITROFOAM, which is both the reason it's lighter and the reason it rides a little springier and rolls through the gait more smoothly, while still firming up honestly when you push the pace. Everything else is close to a wash: both are neutral platforms with a moderately stable, wide base and no pronation correction, both top out around a similar tempo ceiling (roughly 4:45 vs 4:40 min/km) and are happiest at steady daily paces, and neither is a plush recovery shoe or a plated 5K racer. The uppers differ in detail more than in feel — the Nitro 3 uses a plain engineered mesh, while the Nitro 4 moves to an engineered knit reinforced with PWRTAPE for lockdown, which does run slightly warm in peak summer heat.