Best For

Heel strikers unite! This shoe is for YOU! With added FlyteFoam Blast+ foam in the heel of the ASICS Novablast 3, this shoe rides well for the heel striking category. With more midsole foam throughout the heart of the shoe in this third iteration, I made a conscience choice to strike the heel (versus forefoot), which made the shoe much more enjoyable understep. Putting this neutral road running shoe into the 6-12 mile daily training category, just knocking out those miles from your training calendar.

Upper

The butter fly tongue is back in the ASCIS Novablast 3, love how it wraps over the top of the foot. With engineered monofilament mesh throughout the upper, I’m impressed with the breathability of the toebox specifically. You will not experience a full on plush upper in the back of the shoe, but the padding is there; no blisters on the heel or achilles tendon like experienced in the ASICS Novablast 1. A semi-gusset for the tongue led to a nice lockdown over the top of the foot, but I would love to see a little extra padding toward the top of that butterfly tongue in future iterations. The ASICS running shoe designers opted for a stout heel counter, no flex. I do miss the original Novablast approach to the toebox upper design, remember the Jacquard mesh!? 

Midsole

For the forefoot strikers out there, the additional midsole foam in the heel, when compared to the Nova v1 and v2, is simply not necessary for your gait cycle. It’s an added girth in the back of the shoe that creates the “boat effect.” This added girth in the heel felt clunky through the four phases of the gait cycle, when I focused on forefoot striking. Just be aware if you prefer to land on the balls of your feet through gait cycle. 

Now, the FlyteFoam Blast+ midsole foam is certainly softer than the Novablast 1 and 2. However, I’m a little confused as to why ASICS would add FFBlast+ foam AND increase the volume of the foam at the same time. It would seem that if you are going for more pop and bounce from the foam (faster shoe), you would simultaneously streamline the geometric shape of the midsole. I would personally opt for the ASICS Novablast 2 over the 3 as a mid to forefoot striker, but as mentioned above HEEL STRIKERS unite for the Novablast 3! 

Outsole

Oh no ASICS! That beautiful and deep decoupled groove continues to erode away the further we travel down the Novablast line. What a joy it was to run those first miles in the Novablast 1! The bounce was unlike any other running shoe on the marketplace, at that time. And it perplexes me as to why ASICS would move away from that deep canyon design on the outsole of the ASICS Novablast 3. Maybe we will see a comeback for the “grand canyon” in future road running shoe options. 

I will mention that if you felt unstable in the ASICS Novablast 1 or 2, the third iteration should help you level out on the concrete and tarmac around the world. The outsole offers a wider landing area in this version. Many runners are reporting they prefer this wider outsole design in the third iteration. 

Would I Buy This Shoe Again?

The ASICS Novablast 4 has me on pins and needles, I’m hoping ASICS does not jump too far away from the Nova 2 ethos. I would pick up the ASICS Novablast 3 again if I was looking for a daily trainer in the heel striking category. Listen, most runners are heel strikers, so I think this shoe will perform very well for them, it just didn’t land for me in this iteration. We run on, even when a running shoe doesn’t quite land for our personal footstrikes.