Asics Gel Kayano 30 Wide 'Black Sheet Rock'
Colorway: Black/Sheet Rock · Style code: 1011B685-002 · Release date: May 31, 2023 · Price: $2682 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: ASICS Gel Kayano 30 Wide 'Triple Black' (1011B685-001) · Asics Gel Kayano 30 Wide 'Black Glow Yellow' (1011B685-003) · Asics Gel Kayano 30 Wide 'Carrier Grey' (1011B685-020) · Asics Gel Kayano 30 Wide 'Carrier Grey Illuminate Mint' (1011B685-022) · Asics Gel Kayano 30 Wide 'Oatmeal' (1011B685-250)
The thirtieth Kayano was the biggest change the series had made in decades. ASICS removed both Dynamic DuoMax and LITETRUSS, the two medial support systems the shoe had used in turn, and replaced them with the 4D Guidance System: a softer piece of foam sited under the arch that compresses differently as a runner's gait deteriorates over a long effort. The stated aim was to answer pronation as it changes rather than resist it from the first step.
The rest followed the same logic. Support now came from geometry, sculpted sidewalls and a broader platform, rather than from a firm post pressed against the arch. The midsole gained roughly twenty percent more FF Blast Plus Eco foam, adding about four millimetres of stack, and PureGEL took over from the older GEL unit in the heel, offering the same impact absorption at lower weight.
Reviewers largely read it as the moment the Kayano stopped being a corrective shoe and became a cushioned one that happened to be stable. It is still sold in the stability aisle, but it works nothing like the versions that carried the name through the 2010s.
This is the wide fit, black with sheet rock grey on the overlays, one of the launch colorways at the end of May 2023.