ASICS Metaspeed Ray review

We pushed the ASICS Metaspeed Ray to its limits and found it’s a perfect choice for:

• Runners seeking a blend of speed, lightness, and plush ride in a racing shoe.
• Forefoot and midfoot strikers chasing every second in 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon races.
• Those interested in the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo series but turned off by the price. ASICS trimmed $200 from it, and this one is even lighter!
• Marathoners who prefer a more flexible supershoe, as its unique design delivers a rare mix of flexibility and high performance.

We think the Metaspeed Ray is not the best option for runners who dislike unstable rides. Its full-length FF Leap midsole, paired with compact dimensions, makes the shoe extremely wobbly—something we found very noticeable during our runs. For those wanting similar performance in a more stable package, we believe the ASICS Metaspeed Sky Tokyo is a far better choice.

Additionally, we do not recommend the Ray for heel strikers, as it simply doesn’t work for that running style. In our view, any performance benefits vanish at the rearfoot of this shoe. Instead, we suggest considering the Saucony Endorphin Pro 4 or Nike Alphafly 3.

Our shock absorption test is especially important for this shoe, as the ultra-lightweight build of the Metaspeed Ray relies on the airy FF Leap foam. That raised questions about the real shock absorption and whether it could handle a full marathon.

After we tested the Ray in our machine, it showed more than enough cushioning for any distance. The 120 SA in the forefoot is only 2 SA less than the Sky Tokyo and even 3 SA more than the Adios Pro 4 from Adidas. Meanwhile, the 170 SA in the heel is absolutely stunning. If there were doubts about cushioning, our lab test cleared them.

A few years ago we built our guide on running shoe foams and asked ourselves what would come next after PEBA. The answer, while not a full revolution, has been aliphatic TPU foams like FF Leap.

Energy return in this shoe is excellent. We measured 78% in the heel and 81% in the forefoot, which is the key figure since the shoe is built for non-heel strikers. And at the time of this review, only a few shoes in our lab have ever crossed the 80% mark, as the Metaspeed Ray just did.

After testing this model and others like the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4, we’re definitely convinced that A-TPU has moved ahead of PEBA as the best foam available. The reason goes beyond energy return—it also resists fatigue better, both during a race and also across a whole season, keeping its performance at a higher level for longer.

The Ray is all about pushing limits and showing the world what ASICS can truly deliver. The heel stack height reflects that bold spirit with 39.8 mm, sitting only 0.2 mm below the 40 mm cap set by World Athletics for official races.

In fact, the Metaspeed Ray is already fully cleared by WA and has won a medal for Italy during the male marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The forefoot stack is slightly lower than we expected, but at 30.0 mm it still provides plenty of cushioning to cover any road racing distance with confidence.

This setup also makes the Ray appealing for runners who enjoy a ground-connected feel in a carbon-plated competition shoe. Thanks to its ultra-soft foam and unique plate design, the shoe allows more compression, unlike other supershoes where ground feel is almost zero.

The Metaspeed Ray is listed with a 5 mm drop, but our measurements showed a much steeper 9.8 mm. Still, the shoe is so incredibly soft that heel and midfoot landings compress deeply, making the ride feel closer to a supershoe with a 4–6 mm drop.

FF Leap is not only bouncy but also impressively soft at 12.5 HA. It’s not as soft as the Saucony Endorphin Elite 2, yet for many runners the Ray will deliver the plushest ride they’ve ever experienced in a shoe.

With its excellent energy return, the foam offers a powerful feel we’ve encountered only a few times in hundreds of shoes. Even the Metaspeed Sky Tokyo feels a bit less impressive, as the FF Turbo+ layer is clearly firmer.

We also cut a slab of FF Leap and examined it under the microscope, comparing it to FF Turbo+. On the left, it shows a finer, tightly packed cell structure designed for high energy return and weight reduction. This is possible because A-TPU is extremely elastic, allowing thinner walls that trap less mass.

The secondary foam in this shoe is the special insole placed directly over the plate, measuring a slightly firmer 19.8 HA. Still, it’s a thin layer, and the substantial cushioning beneath the plate makes the Ray feel plush from heel to toe.

The Metaspeed Ray features a clear rocker shape that rolls you forward with ease. The upward curve in the forefoot encourages a faster toe-off and helps sustain momentum during quick running efforts. This is especially important because this shoe is not as aggressive as others in terms of plate geometry.

The heel is beveled as well, though we believe it’s mainly for weight reduction rather than function. As we’ve pointed out before, this shoe is simply not intended for heel strikers.

The most surprising design choice from ASICS in this shoe is the use of a three-quarter-length carbon plate instead of a full-length one. It’s also slightly narrower than the midsole and doesn’t extend to the very end of the shoe like most supershoes.

This setup brings some important considerations. The shoe is clearly built for forefoot and midfoot strikers, since the heel has no plate support and loses all performance benefits. This can be a concern for runners who unintentionally shift to a rearfoot strike in the later stages of a marathon.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Ray is less stiff than many supershoes. If you enjoy a rigid and responsive feel, this won’t deliver it, as it’s far more flexible. On the other hand, that flexibility creates a blend of performance and comfort that is rarely found in shoes of this category.

When we first tested the Metaspeed Ray, the snug fit stood out immediately. Even compared to other supershoes, it felt noticeably tighter to us, which wasn’t surprising for such a radical shoe.

After creating a 1:1 mold of the interior, we measured just 91.3 mm in width. It’s obvious that ASICS pushed to cut weight in every possible way while also opting for a snug fit to recover some stability.

Yes, runners with wide feet may really struggle in the Metaspeed Ray. While many supershoes tend to run narrow, this one has an especially aggressive taper in the toebox that can become a real issue over marathon distance. For shorter events, it’s less of a concern.

If you need more room, it’s better to sacrifice the weight savings here and go for the New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Elite v4, one of the rare supershoes available in a true wide size.

While the toebox feels very restrictive laterally, we discovered it has generous vertical space at 27.0 mm, which was a welcome relief. 

ASICS has been designing performance shoes with this clearance in the last few years, and it’s present in the Ray as well, though it might disappoint runners who prefer a glove-like, snug fit in their supershoes.

ASICS used here their ASICSGRIP compound, the same rubber featured in their most premium supertrainers and supershoes. We tested it with our SATRA TM144 machine and discovered that, even with its low outsole coverage, it achieved an impressive 0.70 in our traction test.

Sooner or later, you’ll hit your A-race of the year in heavy rain. That’s never ideal, but with the Ray you can count on reliable traction, even on wet concrete.

The outsole of the Metaspeed Ray is stripped down to the bare minimum, prioritizing weight savings above all else. Compared to the Sky Tokyo, it has even less coverage, with small patches of ASICSGRIP rubber concentrated in the forefoot.

The heel show very little protection, signaling once more that this shoe is not meant for heel strikers.

One of the standout features of the Ray is its three-quarter-length plate, as we showed earlier. It feels noticeably more flexible underfoot than most supershoes, and our lab confirmed this with a 16.3N result in the 30-degree bend test. We’ll also evaluate its torsional stiffness soon!

The hypershoe and supershoe names come from the car world, where hypercars were created as an even higher tier above the already powerful supercars, defined by extreme speed and acceleration.

The Metaspeed Ray fits squarely into the hypershoe category thanks to its insanely low weight of 4.55 oz (129g). This class was started by the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 at 4.9 oz (138g), and ASICS has managed to shave it down even further, aiming for the top spot in this new segment.

And yes, we know some Chinese brands are also producing even lighter competition shoes, but those are not widely available outside Asia, and their energy return and cushioning still don’t match what ASICS or Adidas offer here. Even so, they’re worth keeping an eye on for the future...

Most supershoes deliver excellent ventilation, and we expected the same from the Metaspeed Ray. Airflow is solid at 4/5 on our scale, though it doesn’t quite reach the 5/5 that some rivals achieved. Still, we believe that this isn’t concerning at all.

The main reason lies in the material choice by ASICS. Instead of the MOTIONWRAP 3.0 upper used in the other Metaspeed models, the Ray features a MATRYX upper engineered to be as lightweight as possible. And yes, MATRYX does a lot of stuff outside trail running!

When we examined the upper under our digital microscope, we were surprised it didn’t score higher for ventilation.

Air somehow gets trapped despite all of those gaps. To be fair, we even debated a bit between a 4 and 5 score for this shoe.

It’s also important to note that, unlike some competitors, this shoe offers fantastic airflow through the midfoot—though at the cost of stability—along with small perforations in the heel.

Don’t look for stability in the Metaspeed Ray, because there’s nothing to be found here. The shoe is tall, compact, and built with super-soft foam under an upper as thin as smoke paper.

Through our testing we discovered that support is nonexistent, making this a shoe only meant for runners with a true neutral technique. You must also enjoy a thrill-seeking ride that feels as joyful as it is risky for your ankles.

Here’s another key test for this shoe. Unlike most supershoes, the Metaspeed Ray skips a full-length carbon plate, making it more flexible and scoring only 3/5 in our lab.

We discovered this could frustrate heel strikers or runners needing more stability, yet for those who crave maximum performance with a less rigid feel, it may feel like a dream.

The heel has no structure beyond a thin layer of foam, which adds to the instability in this area. Simply put, don’t expect any kind of support from this shoe. And of course, this is a 1 out of 5.

In the push to cut weight, ASICS made the shoe extremely compact, and we discovered this clearly when we measured it with our calipers.

At just 100.8 mm, it feels more like a track spike than a supershoe. To give perspective, this puts the Ray in the top 1% of the narrowest shoes we’ve tested in the lab, while the Sky Tokyo measured a much wider 114.9 mm.

The heel is even more striking at just 73.0 mm of width. In fact, a modern track spike like the Nike Victory 2 is actually 0.3 mm wider!

There are many reasons we do not recommend this shoe for heel strikers, but this super-narrow platform is the decisive one.

This upper is among the thinnest we’ve ever tested, and it was obvious from the start that durability wasn’t going to be good.

Honestly, even a 2/5 would have felt like a success, but we ended up with the expected 1/5.

We were a bit surprised to find a small foam pad in the heel given how extreme this shoe is, and at first we worried it might hurt durability in this test. However, the Ray proved us wrong and earned a fantastic max score of 5.

The ASICSGRIP rubber grabs the ground like claws, but that grip comes at the cost of durability. Our last Dremel test showed 1.2 mm of wear, which is more than the average.

Just like in Formula 1 cars: softer tires deliver stronger traction, but they wear out faster.

Don’t expect the Ray to last very long, since it only has 0.9 mm of rubber. 

But honestly, who expects a Ferrari to go a million miles? We’re actually surprised ASICS added almost 1 mm, given that the main goal of this shoe is to be as lightweight as possible.

We measured the insole at the heel and found it adds 7.6 mm of thickness, but it thickens a bit more a lot toward the forefoot, as this sockliner is the only layer of foam above the plate.

We discovered that the insole of the Metaspeed Ray can be removed, but doing so is a mistake, as it creates a major downgrade in cushioning and performance, especially in the forefoot.

As we told before, this special insole is a key part of the midsole, sitting directly over the carbon plate, and we found it works like a super-thin energy layer, similar to the setup On uses in the Cloudboom Strike.

The new FF Leap foam proved that A-TPU is the real deal, as it also handles cold better than PEBA. After 20 minutes in the freezer, it came back just 2% firmer. That's seriously impressive.

The Metaspeed Ray has no reflective elements at all, though honestly, was anyone really expecting it to?

The Metaspeed Ray features a traditional lacing system with punched eyelets and a reinforcement that reminded us of some recent Adidas designs. The laces feel premium with a textured finish that helps them stay securely tied. And we loved that the tongue has fantastic airflow too.

Speaking of the tongue... we found it ultra-thin at just 0.4 mm. Please note that comfort is nonexistent, so make sure to tie the laces gently, as tightening them too much will almost certainly cause instep pain.

The tongue moves freely since it isn’t gusseted, which comes as no surprise considering ASICS’ aggressive weight-saving approach.

For a hypershoe, the Metaspeed Ray isn’t outrageously priced. Sure, it’s still very expensive compared to most running shoes, but when you’re getting the most advanced tech with incredible weight savings and explosive energy return at nearly half the cost of Adidas’ Evo 1 or Evo 2, it somehow feels like a solid deal!

ASICS focused on shaving off every possible gram from this shoe, so a finger-loop heel tab was clearly never part of the plan.