Asics Cuts 14g From the Sonicblast and Forks the Plate

What happened

Asics has unveiled the Sonicblast 2 as the hero shoe of its new Rise and Shine collection. The collection goes global from 24 August 2026, and the Sonicblast 2 itself hits Asics US, UK and EU on 1 September at $190 / £170 / €190, up ten dollars on the first Sonicblast.

The pitch is narrow and easy to follow. This is the fastest shoe in the Blast family, the only one with a plate, and Asics has spent the second generation making it lighter and getting more of its bounciest foam under the front of your foot.

The plate is now a fork

The headline change is the Astroplate. On the original Sonicblast it was a broad three quarter length plate. On the v2 Asics has cut it back into a fork shape, with the prongs running forward under the metatarsals rather than a solid sheet of it.

That does two things. It removes material, which is most of where the weight saving comes from. And it opens up space for FF Turbo Squared, the supercritical ATPU foam that Asics also uses in the Megablast, to run further through the midsole and fill what the brand is now calling the Trampoline Pod under the forefoot.

Worth knowing if you are shopping on the spec sheet: Asics markets the Astroplate alongside its carbon plated racers, but lab teardowns of the first Sonicblast found the plate is Pebax, not carbon. That is a good thing for a trainer. It flexes rather than dictates, which is why the Sonicblast works on easy days in a way a Metaspeed does not.

The numbers

• Weight: 242g for a men's US 9, down from 256g. Women's drops from 223g to 212g.
• Stack: 46mm heel / 38mm forefoot in the men's shoe, 45/37 in the women's.
• Drop: 8mm, unchanged.
• Midsole: FF Turbo Squared on top, FF Blast Max underneath.
• Outsole: AsicsGrip rubber.

Fourteen grams sounds like rounding error until you put it next to the rest of the range. The Sonicblast 2 is now within a few grams of the Superblast 3 at 239g, and it is carrying a plate the Superblast does not have.

Upper

The jacquard mesh is gone, replaced by a new engineered mesh aimed at breathability and comfort. Part of the weight saving comes from here too.

This is the most obvious fix in the shoe. Reviewers of the first Sonicblast liked the ride and kept coming back to the upper: Believe in the Run found the forefoot "just a touch snug" and noted the upper "did seem to collect more sweat than I'd like during longer runs." RunRepeat's lab flagged a narrow tapered toebox and rated the ventilation panels poorly for durability. Asics has clearly heard it. Whether the new mesh actually widens the front of the shoe or just breathes better is the thing to watch when the reviews land.

Where it fits in the Blast line

Asics now has four Blast shoes above the daily trainer tier, and they are easier to tell apart than the naming suggests:

• Novablast 6, $155, no plate. Soft daily trainer.
• Superblast 3, no plate, 46.5/38.5mm. The long run and workout shoe people buy instead of a racer.
• Megablast, $225, no plate, a full slab of FF Turbo Squared. Max cushion.
• Sonicblast 2, $190. The plated one.

So the plate is the whole argument. If you already own a Superblast, the question is whether a forked Pebax plate and a firmer, more directed toe off is worth another $190 to you. If you own nothing in this bracket and mostly run tempo and progression days, the Sonicblast is the one in the family built for that.

One thing to keep in mind

The first Sonicblast launched at $180 and spent a good chunk of its life discounted, at one point going for $60 off at US retail. It is a genuinely good shoe that landed in the most contested price band in running, next to the Superblast, the Endorphin Speed, the Mach X and everything else fighting over the same tempo day slot.

The v2 arrives at $190 into the same crowd. Nothing about the shoe suggests it is bad value, but if your budget is the deciding factor, the pattern from last year says patience gets rewarded.

South Africa

No local date or price yet. Asics SA usually follows the northern launch by a few weeks, and going by how the rest of the range is priced here, Novablast 6 at R3,299 and Megablast at R4,999, a $190 shoe should land somewhere around R4,300 to R4,600. Treat that as an estimate until Asics SA or Sportsmans Warehouse post a real number.

If you are chasing a Cape Town or Soweto build right now, the honest answer is that the Superblast 3 and the Megablast are already here and already good. The Sonicblast 2 is the one to look at if you specifically want a plate in your workout shoe.