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Puma Faas 100R 2015 Review

22 May, 2015

Puma Faas 100R Review Summary A well-constructed, incredibly light racing flat, that promotes a natural running motion, encouraging a fast transition and better performance for distances up to a 10k for most runners. First Impressions Well, they are pink! Very pink! When I first got the new Puma Faas 100’s out of the box, two things immediately sprang to mind – they are incredibly light (164gms) and wow, did I mention the colour? A brighter than bright, hot pink. Inspecting the shoe further, the lightness comes from a stripped down shoe in every department. The upper is almost transparent, it’s that thin – slipping the shoe on – your feet are clearly visible through the material. The tongue is very thin, so thin I don’t think it would serve much purpose really. The white sole is a very flat base – no major grooves but very flexible – I wondered what they would be like in wetter conditions as the designers appear to have overlooked “grippier” components in favour of shaving off a few more grams… Puma Fass 100R Appearance The colour does take some getting used to, and I must admit I feel like a modern footballer pulling them on, what happened to the days when all trainers were either white or black? However, the blue laces and detailing, along with the white sole, does give the shoe a modern, eye-catching overall look – and I do like the feature inside showing where on the Puma range the Faas 100 sits on the Faas range of cushioning – right at the bottom! Puma Fass 100R trainer Feel Trying on a size 9 (I normally fit a 10 in Adidas), I was surprised that I had just enough room – a snug, but comfortable fit. Maybe a 9.5 would be ideal, so consider getting at least a half-size smaller if you invest in a pair. The toe box is not as pointed than on my Adizero Adios, allowing my toes to spread well throughout. Having skinny feet means that toe room is never a real issue, but for a racing flat, I like to have more room here as I get more onto my forefoot on quicker runs. The tongue I’ve noticed tends to ruffle a bit under the laces, mainly because it is so thin – so needs a bit of adjusting to sit right. An improvement for future versions would be to stitch the tongue into the upper itself, ensuring it can’t slip and rub in any way. The heel has plenty of padding and sits in the right place. Puma Fass 100R Performance Being the first absolute “zero drop” shoe that I’ve worn, I immediately noticed just the few mm drop from my usual runners for high tempo training runs. Going out for the first time, I decided to do some intervals at 5km pace and just on warm up I was surprised just how…

Shoe Rating

Comfort / Fit

Appearance

Weight

Durability

Light, bright, fast.

An extremely light, bright, zero-drop racing flat that should shave vital seconds off your times up to 10k distance.

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Puma Faas 100R Review

Summary

A well-constructed, incredibly light racing flat, that promotes a natural running motion, encouraging a fast transition and better performance for distances up to a 10k for most runners.

First Impressions

Well, they are pink! Very pink! When I first got the new Puma Faas 100’s out of the box, two things immediately sprang to mind – they are incredibly light (164gms) and wow, did I mention the colour? A brighter than bright, hot pink.

Inspecting the shoe further, the lightness comes from a stripped down shoe in every department. The upper is almost transparent, it’s that thin – slipping the shoe on – your feet are clearly visible through the material. The tongue is very thin, so thin I don’t think it would serve much purpose really. The white sole is a very flat base – no major grooves but very flexible – I wondered what they would be like in wetter conditions as the designers appear to have overlooked “grippier” components in favour of shaving off a few more grams…

Puma Fass 100R

Appearance

The colour does take some getting used to, and I must admit I feel like a modern footballer pulling them on, what happened to the days when all trainers were either white or black? However, the blue laces and detailing, along with the white sole, does give the shoe a modern, eye-catching overall look – and I do like the feature inside showing where on the Puma range the Faas 100 sits on the Faas range of cushioning – right at the bottom!

Puma Fass 100R trainer

Feel

Trying on a size 9 (I normally fit a 10 in Adidas), I was surprised that I had just enough room – a snug, but comfortable fit. Maybe a 9.5 would be ideal, so consider getting at least a half-size smaller if you invest in a pair. The toe box is not as pointed than on my Adizero Adios, allowing my toes to spread well throughout. Having skinny feet means that toe room is never a real issue, but for a racing flat, I like to have more room here as I get more onto my forefoot on quicker runs. The tongue I’ve noticed tends to ruffle a bit under the laces, mainly because it is so thin – so needs a bit of adjusting to sit right. An improvement for future versions would be to stitch the tongue into the upper itself, ensuring it can’t slip and rub in any way. The heel has plenty of padding and sits in the right place.

Puma Fass 100R

Performance

Being the first absolute “zero drop” shoe that I’ve worn, I immediately noticed just the few mm drop from my usual runners for high tempo training runs. Going out for the first time, I decided to do some intervals at 5km pace and just on warm up I was surprised just how much support the shoe gave me. The flat, fairly wide sole gives a solid base to land and push off from, and being a slight over-pronator due to some old football injuries, I found the shoe gave me more support and therefore more confidence in my footstrike.

Getting up to 5k speed felt very natural in the Faas 100 – the minimalist design encourages you to move to your forefoot, with the shoes flexibility really helping here. Being incredibly light, flexible, but with just enough support, makes for a good mix and I look forward to trying them out at a 10k this weekend.

Durability

Having been on 3 training runs so far (total 17 miles), I have noticed some wear to the midfoot section of the sole already. Based on the wear already shown, I would be surprised to see these last for more than 150-200 miles and they are certainly not as durable as the Adizero range that I have favoured in the past.

Conclusion

Exceeded expectations. Overall, a well-constructed, incredibly light racing flat, that promotes a natural running motion, encouraging a fast transition and better performance for distances up to a 10k for most runners.

*UPDATE FOLLOWING 10K RACE*

“I think the result speaks for itself… I felt really good running in the Faas 100R’s, the shoe helped me get into a more natural running movement. That seemed to improve my pace, leading to me removing 61 seconds from my PB, which now stands at 38:52. I’ll definitely be keeping these reserved for future 5 and 10k races!

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Matt Coggins

Running for fitness and pleasure for 9 years, but taking things a little more seriously nowadays. Current aims of improving my HM PB of 91:04 and my 5k PB of 19:23.