Metaspeed Sky Tokyo Ekiden

Asics was founded in Kobe, Japan in 1949 by Kihachiro Onitsuka, who started making basketball shoes in a country rebuilding from the war. In 1977 the company merged with GTO and Jelenk to become ASICS — an acronym of Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, Latin for "a sound mind in a sound body." GEL cushioning arrived in 1986; the Gel-Kayano launched in 1993, named after in-house designer Toshikazu Kayano. The modern foam arc — FF Blast+, FF Blast+ Eco, FF Turbo+, FF Turbo², FF Leap — continues a 75-year engineering culture that puts underfoot science before marketing.

The MetaSpeed Sky is Asics' elite marathon racer for stride-dominant runners — athletes who get faster by lengthening stride rather than raising cadence. A full-length carbon propulsion plate sits high in the midsole, wrapped in FF Turbo+ PEBA foam so the return reads as vertical rebound at toe-off. Matched foam, matched plate, different geometry from the Edge — this is the Asics answer for runners whose marathon gear is the stride itself. Ekiden colourway — a tribute to Japan's relay-marathon tradition (the Hakone Ekiden calendar, Jan 2-3, running every year since 1920).