- Asics’s marketing pitch: Dynamic bounce and responsive energy return.
- Upper: Engineered mesh, tongue gusset.
- Upper fit: True to size, secure.
- Midsole: Full-length Flytefoam Blast Max foam. 8 mm heel drop.
- Outsole: Carbon rubber in high-wear areas.
- Weight: 255 gms/ 9 Oz for a half pair of Men’s US 9/UK 8/EUR 42.5/CM 27.
- Stack heights: 41.5 mm (heel), 33.5 mm (forefoot).
- Available widths: D – regular (reviewed), 2E (wide).
- Previous model: Asics Novablast 4.
- Country of origin: Vietnam.
- Recommended use: Everyday training, recovery runs, marathons.
- Footstrike orientation: All types (heel/midfoot/forefoot).
- Median lifespan: 400 miles.
- Recommended paces: 5:00 min/km (8:00 min/mile) and slower.
- Recommended temperature range: Warmer than -5° C/23° F.
Pros
- Rubbery-soft comfort
- Smooth ride
- Cushioning-to-weight ratio
- Secure upper fit
- Optional width
Cons
- Less stable than the Novablast 4
- Weaker rocker effect than the Novablast 4
- FF Blast Max foam stiffens in the cold
Also consider:
- Nike Vomero 18
- adidas Adizero EVO SL
- New Balance 1080V14
- Hoka Clifton 10
- Use the Asics Novablast 5 for daily training and recovery runs
- Use the Asics Metaspeed Sky Paris for 10K and marathons
- Use the Asics Hyper Speed 4 for 5K and sprints
In this review:
SUMMARY AND VERDICT
Asics is a Japanese brand, so we’d like to bring up a Japanese word – umami, meaning delicious taste.
In food, umami is one of the five basic tastes, the other being saltiness, sweetness, bitterness, and sourness. umami adds savoriness, without which a dish loses its unique flavor. Since Umami is sensed through separate tongue receptors, it’s classified as a distinct taste – the type of flavor found in dried/cured meat, Shiitake mushrooms, aged cheese, and soy.
Shoes that capture the minds and hearts of runners have their version of umami. A shoe’s fit, cushioning softness, stability, and tech are not umami by themselves, but rather its components when used in the right quantities.
What makes a once popular running shoe lose its Umami?
The answer is simple yet obvious: Comparable products offer superior performance for an equal or better price. This usually happens because:
1. The shoe hasn’t changed, but the world has moved on.
2. The shoe has lost its edge, and it no longer feels special.
Most of the time, runners can’t quite put their finger on that edge, except for the nagging sense that something’s not quite right. This feeling is often anchored in nostalgia, when the shoe previously offered something that few others did at the time. It might have been a max-cushioned ride (Hoka Clifton v1), a racing flat with a fun ride (New Balance 1500v1), or an incredible ride character (Vaporfly 4%).
Speaking of the original Asics Novablast, it combined bouncy cushioning with a forefoot rocker. On the road, that translated into a versatile blend of comfort and speed. One could use the Novablast V1 for everyday miles or tempo training, as the Flytefoam midsole and propulsive rocker positioned the foot for faster turnovers. The follow-up acts failed to capture the magic of the first model, but our view is that the Novablast 3 delivered the best balance between comfort, stability, and speed-friendliness.
On the surface, the Novablast 5 is a familiar sight. It has a sculpted midsole with generous stack heel and forefoot stack heights of 41.5 mm and 33.5 mm. The front end is rocker-shaped, and the all-mesh upper maintains its clean lines.
There’s just one problem. The shoe is too soft for the rocker to function properly, the result of Asics switching to the new FlyteFoam (FF) Blast Max foam. This foam feels twice as soft as the Novablast 3, and at least 50% softer than the Novablast 4. The softened midsole adds sluggishness during the push-off phase relative to the previous models.
Like Nike React, FlyteFoam Blast Max foam stiffens considerably when subjected to sub-zero temperatures.
It’s also worth mentioning that the FF Blast Max is uncannily similar to Nike React, meaning there’s a lot of rubbery softness with weak energy return. The midsole firmness is temperature-dependent, meaning FF Blast Max will run softer during a hot summer day, and double its hardness in below-freezing temperatures.
It’s hard to make a bad shoe these days, so differentiated performance – or the running shoe equivalent of Umami – matters more now than ever. In the highly competitive running shoe industry, a generic product that intends to please everyone will eventually fade into the background. And that’s what the Novablast 5 is gradually turning into – an attempted crowd-pleaser with a generic feel. A rocker midsole is no longer a selling point, as it’s now considered a default feature set, much like the ubiquity of plastic midfoot shanks back in 2012.
When a shoe loses what once made it special, the best course of action is to go back to the drawing board without relying on parts out of the leftover bin. The Nike Vomero 18 is a good example of how it’s done.
As things stand today, we view the Asics Novablast as a future version of the Asics Cumulus – a comfortable everyday trainer with limited speed capabilities. This doesn’t mean sales will drop off a cliff as people stop buying them. Shoes like the Clifton 10 and Novablast 5 will continue to be commercially successful, because they are ‘good’ shoes that will make most runners happy. The Novablast 5, for all our umami talk, feels ridiculously plush – the kind of ride many runners will gladly pay $140 for. Even if they don’t find the spirit of the Novablast, they’ll at least end up with a cushioned everyday trainer.
However, the Novablast is no longer the top-of-mind choice for its category; shoes like the adidas Adizero EVO SL are. In a world where attention is a scarce commodity, mindshare matters greatly for consumer goods like running shoes.
THE RIDE EXPERIENCE
To say that Asics FlyteFoam’s nomenclature is a mess is a monumental understatement. There’s no consistency or standardization across different variants – for example, the FF Blast+ foam in the Cumulus 27 feels very different than the FF Blast+ on the Kayano 31. And which one does the Novablast 5 have now? It’s another variant named the FF Blast Max.
Asics FlyteFoam’s lack of consistency and standardization is extremely confusing for its customers. We can only imagine how the original design brief meeting for the Asics Novablast 5 went.
“Which foam should we use for the new Novablast?”
“Let’s stick in the Flytefoam Blast in there.”
“Sure. Which one? The Flytefoam Blast+ from the Novablast 4?”
“No, not that one. The other FF Blast+ foam”.
“Gotcha. We’ll use the FF Blast+ Eco from the Nimbus 27”.
“Uh, not that either. I’m thinking of the FlyteFoam Blast Max.”
“Wait. Did you just make that up? What on earth is the FF Blast Max?”
“It’s just like the Nike React foam but re-branded as FlyteFoam. Except, our midsole is taller.”
“Did you mean Nike ReactX from the Infinity 4?”
“No, the React foam from the Nike Pegasus Trail 4 and React Infinity. Rubbery soft, remember?”
“But doesn’t that foam soften during summers and stiffen at sub-zero temperatures?”
“Uh huh. But nobody’s going to notice”.
The FlyteFoam Blast Max feels exactly like the Nike React foam from the Pegasus Trail 4 and React Infinity Run Flyknit, but in a higher-stack configuration. This ‘new’ Asics foam behaves similarly by delivering a soft ride with a rubbery overtone. It’s not bouncy, and has insignificant levels of energy return.
Just like Nike React, FF Blast Max is most likely a SEBS (Styrene-Ethylene-Butylene-Styrene) polymer blend. In layman’s terms, this foam is a synthetic rubber blend. Chemical companies like Asahi Kasei (maker of TUFTEC SEBS Copolymer) and Mitsui Chemical (producer of TAFMER linking polymer) are Japanese, so it’s convenient for Asics to source from them. That’s just our hunch, so take what we’re suggesting with a grain of salt.
The rubbery-soft cushioning is all-pervasive from heel to toe – a natural outcome of the tall midsole stack. The thickness is similar to the outgoing model; the 41.5 mm (heel) and 33.5 mm (forefoot) stack heights produce an 8 mm drop. The level of step-in softness hasn’t changed since last year, as you’ll find the same removable footbed with a plush fabric lining.
In ambient temperatures between 5° C/41° F to 30° C/86° F, softness will more or less stay the same. Incremental change in firmness will become noticeable when running in sub-zero temperatures. Conversely, long runs on very hot days – think 35° C/95° F to 45° C/113° F – will soften the Novablast, negatively impacting its ability to support quicker miles.
It’s one thing to look at a foam’s properties in isolation, and entirely another to view it in the context of the shoe. If the Novablast 5’s goal, as Asics states, is to achieve ‘energized toe-offs’, then the new FF Blast Max foam impedes, rather than encourages it. This happens because of two reasons, and that’s without taking the temperature-dependent cushioning into account.
Firstly, without a plate, a soft and tall forefoot increases the workload for the foot. A soft forefoot also makes the rocker less stiff, reducing its efficacy. There’s not much outsole under the forefoot to add stiffness either. The stiffer the forefoot, the better the rocker works by quickly propelling the foot forward. If the soft midsole makes it easy for the foot to flatten the rocker, what’s the point of having it in the first place?
Secondly, there’s the matter of the heel-to-toe transition for heel strikers. A soft midsole increases the workload for the foot during the loading process. This slows down transitions and reduces the runner’s ability to go fast. Running in the middle of winter may help you run faster due to the firming properties of the FF Blast Max, but that’s a bug, not a feature.
The Novablast 5’s stability isn’t bad because of the transition groove and raised sidewalls. The under-heel cavity helps center the weight to deliver a neutral ride, while the raised midsole edges produce a cupping effect. While the quality of outsole grip was never the Novablast’s strong suit, the softer midsole improves traction by letting the outsole spread wider to increase the contact area.
If there’s one thing that the FF Blast Max foam does very well, it’s the ability to produce an excellent damping sensation. The soft cushioning doesn’t feel mushy; the foam has a stretchy, almost doughy, character that keeps the mushiness away.
Its speed abilities may be tempered, but the Novablast 5 excels as an everyday trainer at speeds of 5:00 min/km (8 min/mile) or slower. The abundant cushioning is also ideal for long runs, including marathons. Going fast is tricky with the soft midsole and weak rocker, so it helps to have other shoes in your rotation.
RECOMMENDED ROTATION
Our choice of a plate-equipped marathon racer is the Asics Metaspeed Sky Paris. For shorter races, the low-profile Asics Hyper Speed 4 delivers speed-focused performance at an affordable price.
THE UPPER DESIGN AND FIT
The Novablast 5 has the best upper fit in the series by far. We’ll start with the highlight – it’s nowhere as narrow and hot as the Novablast 4. This update includes a thinner mesh with built-in vents for air circulation. The gusseted tongue is perforated on top for improved breathability.
Runners will find better interior comfort in the less-tight upper. The fit is still very secure around the forefoot, but offers a broad toe-box in a true-to-size package. A wide version of the Novablast 5 is also available for extra room. While the soft tongue doesn’t have a lot of padding, the foam pockets on the flap are good at preventing lace bites. The heel uses soft lining and quilted foam to deliver a secure, yet comfortable fit.
There are small yet useful additions to the upper. The large loop on the tongue makes it easier to slip the shoe. There’s a similar loop over the heel that happens to be larger – and therefore more functional – than the loop on the Novablast 4. The first two rows of lacings pass through loops and not eyelets punched in the upper, making it slightly easier to adjust the fit.
Low-light visibility is printed on the heel loop, and that’s all the reflectivity one gets on the Novablast 5. Unless, you spend another $10 for the reflective ‘Lite-Show’ version.
IS THE ASICS NOVABLAST 5 DURABLE?
There are reports of the FF Blast Max foam partially losing its cushioning after a couple of hundred miles. Since our review is of a short-term (30-50 miles) nature, we cannot confirm the cushioning degradation. But again, people complain when there’s a valid reason to. So we’ll list cushioning fatigue as one of the potential areas to watch out for. We’ll update this section if we receive supporting evidence.
SHOES COMPARABLE TO THE ASICS NOVABLAST 5
Here are some alternatives to the Asics Novablast 5, but we’ll highlight two shoes from our list. If you want a better version of the Novablast 5, we suggest you try the Vomero 18. It’s quicker, bouncier, and equally cushioned.
The other shoe is the adidas Adizero EVO SL. It’s not a replacement for the current Novablast, but rather a shoe that represents the ideal Novablast. Cushioned, springy, and speed-friendly, the EVO SL delivers super-foam performance for a mere $10 over the Novablast 5.