ASICS METARIDE

£220 Are the Metaride as revolutionary as Asics is billing?

Designed to save energy and reduce fatigue through the ankles, the key feature of Asics’ hyped new Metaride is a curved sole that encourages a ‘rocking’ motion through the stride, rather than making you flex your foot and toe-off like a normal run shoe. Now this isn’t a new concept – those who remember MBT (Masai Barefoot Technology) shoes will be familiar with the idea.

Added to the very rigid, curved sole (there’s barely any flex at all) is some more familiar technology, with Asics’ ubiquitous Guidesole tech, a good chunk of their Flytefoam in the midsole and rear foot Gel technology to reduce impact through the heel. So how do they feel?

First impressions are good. The knit upper is soft and comfy, as you’d expect from a premium shoe. Yet we ran into a subsequent problem, as no

matter how many different lacing techniques we tried, we couldn’t get our heel to stay fully within the shoe at toe-off and, at 271g for our UK6, the weight is noticeably high.

That aside, once you get used to the rocking motion, they encourage fast running as, even on this midfootstriding tester, the shape of the sole gives enough momentum to encourage a fast pace yet with cushioning. The midfoot height takes some time getting used to, leaving us feeling a little unstable and missing our connection to the ground – and they’re strictly for tarmac only, as even light stony trails left us wobbling around like Bambi. HW asics.com