It’s a good day to be a fan of fast shoes, with Asics launching the latest versions of its Metaspeed Sky and Edge carbon plate racers and a brand new super-shoe that's one of the lightest on the market.
The all-new Asics Metaspeed Ray weighs just 4.5oz in a men’s size 9 US, making it lighter than even the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2, with a new midsole foam called FF Leap being key to the lightweight design.
While the Metaspeed Ray steals the headlines, there are also big updates to the Asics Metaspeed Sky Paris and Edge Paris shoes, which are both among the best carbon plate running shoes.
Now named for Tokyo, the city hosting the World Athletic Championship later this year, the Asics Metaspeed Sky Tokyo and Metaspeed Edge Tokyo are lighter and use FF Leap foam in their midsoles. That's alongside the FF Turbo+ foam used on the previous models of the shoes.
Asics Metaspeed Ray and Metaspeed Tokyo: Price and availability
The Asics Metaspeed Ray will launch on 12 August 2025 and costs $300 / £265, making it Asics’ most expensive racing shoe yet.
The Asics Metaspeed Sky Tokyo and Metaspeed Edge Tokyo launch on 25 July 2025 and are $270, a price rise on the Metaspeed Paris, which costs $250.
A great leap forward
The Metaspeed Ray’s lightweight design is partly down to the thin Matryx upper and minimal rubber outsole, but the star of the show is the new FF Leap foam.
Asics says this is its lightest, softest and springiest foam ever, and the fact that the shoe is so light despite having a stack height of 39.5mm at the heel and 34.5mm at the forefoot is remarkable.
Weight is everything in a racing shoe, but it certainly helps to have a light shoe on your feet when running fast, and the Metaspeed Ray should offer a blend of comfort and flat-out speed.
The high price and lightweight design suggest the Metaspeed Ray will be more focused on elite runners than the Metaspeed Tokyo shoes, but the Metaspeed Ray is notably cheaper than the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2, which is the elite-focused shoe in the Adidas range.
Asics Metaspeed Sky Tokyo and Metaspeed Edge Tokyo
While the Metaspeed Ray does sound fantastic, the Sky Tokyo and Edge Tokyo are the shoes more likely to appeal to amateur runners.
I’m a huge fan of the Metaspeed Sky Paris, in particular, having run two marathon PRs in the shoe, and the updates to the Metaspeed Tokyo are exciting.
The midsoles on the new shoes are made with FF Leap and FF Turbo+ foams, which sees the weight drop to just under 6oz in a US men’s size 9.
Asics says the new shoes are more efficient in returning energy, too, as well as being softer and bouncier than the Metaspeed Paris models.
As with past versions of the shoes, the carbon plates are positioned differently in the Sky and Edge, with the Edge having a more scooped plate that sits lower in the midsole than the Sky's.
The Sky Tokyo is designed to suit loping runners who mainly increase their stride length when running faster, while the Edge Tokyo suits runners with a high cadence (steps per minute) and increase both their cadence and stride length when running faster.
To suit the different running styles, the softer FF Leap foam is used on the bottom layer of the Sky Tokyo, with FF Turbo+ on top, whereas with the Edge Tokyo, the FF Leap foam is used for the top layer.
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