ASICS pulled the wraps off the Metafuji Trail 2 on July 10 in Kobe, and the timing wasn’t an accident — the shoe made its racing debut the same day, with Tom Evans lacing up the finished version at one of the world’s biggest 100-mile trail races. If you’ve been following the super-shoe arms race move off the road and onto singletrack, this is the one ASICS has been building toward since the original Metafuji Trail landed back in 2024.
The BackstoryWhy this launch matters
The first Metafuji Trail was, by most accounts, a bit of a mixed bag — blazing fast on runnable gravel, but a handful on anything technical. ASICS knew it, and rather than a cosmetic refresh, the brand rebuilt the plate geometry from scratch. The result made its prototype debut in the toughest possible testing ground: Chamonix, at UTMB 2025, where ASICS athletes Tom Evans and Ben Dhiman ran the unreleased shoe to a one-two finish through wind, hail and technical alpine descents. That result did a lot of the talking before the shoe even had a name.
Key NumbersWhat’s changed on paper
ASICS says the new pair sheds about 5 grams off the original despite adding material, and keeps the same 5mm drop runners were used to. That’s a small number on a spec sheet, but on a shoe built for ultra-distance racing, every gram tends to get noticed by the athletes wearing it for 15, 20, sometimes 30 hours at a stretch.
Under The HoodThe tech that’s actually new
How it stacks up against the original
| Spec | Metafuji Trail (2024) | Metafuji Trail 2 (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | ~258g (men’s) | 255g (men’s) |
| Heel-to-toe drop | 5mm | 5mm |
| Carbon plate | Full-length, straight | X-shaped, trail-tuned |
| Top-layer foam | FF BLAST+ dominant | FF LEAP on top of FF BLAST+ |
| Outsole lugs | 2.7mm–4.5mm (varied by report) | 3.5mm |
| Price | $250 | $250 |
Worth flagging: independent lab testing on the original Metafuji Trail found energy return that trailed the price tag a little, and reviewers pointed to shallow lugs as a weak spot on muddy, technical ground. Whether the new plate and foam stack actually fix that will come down to hands-on testing once the shoe ships — the marketing copy reads well, but trail shoes tend to get judged on the descents, not the press release.
Should you buy it?
- Race competitive ultras and technical mountain terrain
- Already run in ASICS super shoes and want a trail equivalent
- Prioritise a low weight-to-cushion ratio for long days on feet
- Run trails casually and don’t need race-day propulsion
- Want a shoe built to last through heavy weekly mileage
- Aren’t ready to spend $250 on a race-specific pair
ASICS didn’t just refresh the colourway here — the plate geometry and foam stack are meaningfully different from the shoe that launched two years ago, and the UTMB one-two finish is about as strong a real-world stress test as a prototype can get. Whether it translates into a shoe worth $250 for the average trail racer is the question we’ll be chasing once pairs are actually on runners’ feet after August 1.
Source: ASICS press release, 10 July 2026, via TheNewsMarket / ASICS EMEA newsroom. Independent testing data referenced from RunRepeat and Road Trail Run.