Lucy Charles and Paula Findlay won with Asics and Lionel Sanders ditched Puma and wearing Asics as well in IMFL. I saw Iden trains in them too. I’ve seen many other triathletes and marathoners racing in them recently. Color is so unique, you can’t miss if you watch coverage pics and videos. Nike used to dominate the field with Next% & Alphaflys, but definitely not anymore. I saw a bunch of fast runners wearing them in local Tris as well. Are they that good or Asics is sponsoring athletes aggressively now? I don’t want to create another super shoe thread, but trend is changing fast, so I’ve been curious about it.
There’s been some recent academic studies of the various shoes. Next%2 and Alphafly are still testing as the fastest shoes, but the Asics Metaspeed is very close. A lot of people seem to like them as they feel a bit more traditional.
Hoka and Brooks are well behind currently
The relevant chart is on pg 13. Note they didn’t test the new Adidas or Puma carbon shoes: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=kinesiology
Is that sample size even statistically significant? 12 Male runners.
Lucy Charles and Paula Findlay won with Asics and Lionel Sanders ditched Puma and wearing Asics as well in IMFL. I saw Iden trains in them too. I’ve seen many other triathletes and marathoners racing in them recently. Color is so unique, you can’t miss if you watch coverage pics and videos. Nike used to dominate the field with Next% & Alphaflys, but definitely not anymore. I saw a bunch of fast runners wearing them in local Tris as well. Are they that good or Asics is sponsoring athletes aggressively now? I don’t want to create another super shoe thread, but trend is changing fast, so I’ve been curious about it.
You seen what they did to LCB’s feet in Abu Dhabi? To be fair she was sockless. (Check her insta story from today).
Blumenfelt also changed to ASICS from Nike. From what I read the nikes were too boat like.
Think the Meta Sky will be my next purchase, seen a lot of people change the midsole out so maybe consider that. Might even be a new model before I get around to needing super shoes. I got some Alphafly and Carbon X2 with a big discount
In my sample size of one, I can report that the Metaspeed feel almost as fast as the Nikes but they are way, way more stable and I can actually run in them for more than a couple of miles without my post tib tendon hurting afterwards. Not surprised so many elites are wearing them.
Blumenfelt also changed to ASICS from Nike. From what I read the nikes were too boat like.
Think the Meta Sky will be my next purchase, seen a lot of people change the midsole out so maybe consider that. Might even be a new model before I get around to needing super shoes. I got some Alphafly and Carbon X2 with a big discount
I forgot about Blumenfelt and Flora Duffy. ASICS even made gold version for her. Skye Moench ran in them in IMFL too I believe.
Thinking back I’m sure LCB never had a shoe sponsor and chose the ASICS because of stability.
You seen what they did to LCB’s feet in Abu Dhabi? To be fair she was sockless. (Check her insta story from today).
Am I missing something? Her latest Instagram post is running with her dog???
Surely at the end of the day it depends on your feet. My feet have never tolerated Asics. I’ve always gone with Brooks but would be interested to try the Nike Vaporfly.
Seems in the sports physiology and testing world, that would count as a relatively large sample it seems, sadly.
You seen what they did to LCB’s feet in Abu Dhabi? To be fair she was sockless. (Check her insta story from today).
Am I missing something? Her latest Instagram post is running with her dog???
Not her latest post, but her latest story, you have to click on her profile pic to see them.
You seen what they did to LCB’s feet in Abu Dhabi? To be fair she was sockless. (Check her insta story from today).
Am I missing something? Her latest Instagram post is running with her dog???
Watch the story. Either chaffed and bled through or a blister formed, popped, and then bled through.
Thinking back I’m sure LCB never had a shoe sponsor and chose the ASICS because of stability.
Lionel, Skye, Sam Long, LCB, RVB, Largerstrom and several athletes don’t have shoe sponsors. On the other hand, Hoka squad is Salthouse, Heather Jackson, Frodeno, Amberger. Gentle Ash, Immogen Simmons, Carfrae, Emma Pallent, Sarah True…etc and the list is pretty long. Matt Hanson and Tim Don are with On though. RVB specifically said in one of his youtube videos he had PR with Alphaflys, so he’s been using them. It’s pretty interesting to see athletes without shoe sponsors have moved toward Asics over time and that got me curious. I was so sure Alphafly or Next% would dominate among athletes without shoe sponsors but I was wrong.
You seen what they did to LCB’s feet in Abu Dhabi? To be fair she was sockless. (Check her insta story from today).
Am I missing something? Her latest Instagram post is running with her dog???
Watch the story. Either chaffed and bled through or a blister formed, popped, and then bled through.
Got it. Some of the shoes need socks for sure. Ari Klau suffered big time when he went sockless with Next%. His heels were torn up badly.
Skipper is supported by Hoka it seems and so is Nikki Bartlett. I wonder how much money triathletes get from a shoe deal and if the possibility of more prize money from choosing more optimal shows outweighs the benefits of any deal.
Would guess at the lower end of the sponsored scale it’s better to be able to pick and choose. Maybe get supported by a sports shop that has a broad stock.
no, there is no “the one” when it comes to shoes as it is such an individual thing. asics themselves agree since they make both sky and edge versions of the metaspeed for different types of runners (and you can’t really tell the difference easily so many of the asics you see athletes racing in may not be the sky at all).
Not sure about the US, but here in Canada, the Metaspeeds are about the same price as the Nike Vaporflys, but Asics Canada does not have the return policy Nike has.
Nike I believe allows you to actually try the shoes for up to 60 days and return them if they don’t work for you.
Asics only accepts returns if unworn, tags attached etc.
Don’t get me wrong, not looking to run in shoes for a month and then send back, but for 325 + tax, I’d like to be able to try at least one run in them to see…
Blumenfelt also changed to ASICS from Nike. From what I read the nikes were too boat like.
I can understand that. My wife surprised me with a pair of the AlphaFly for finishing IMFL. I put them on and it didn’t take me long to realize I wouldn’t be keeping them.
I’d be curious to try out the Next% and Next%2 as they seem to be a more traditional shaped shoe.
I have worn all versions of the vaporfly/next and I tried the alphas the returned them after one run. Just didn’t feel good. I do want to try the metas though and hopefully I can try them side by side but sadly these shoes need to be run in to see if they work well. Which is why running warehouse is a great option.