Asics Gel Kinsei Blast LE 2 'Olive Oil'
Colorway: Olive Oil/Electric Red · Style code: 1011B592-301 · Release date: January 2, 2023 · Price: $1026 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Asics Gel Kinsei Blast LE 2 'Lime Zest' (1011B592-300) · Asics Gel Kinsei Blast LE 2 'Island Blue' (1011B592-400) · Asics Gel Kinsei Blast LE 'Shocking Orange' (1011B332-800) · Asics Wmns Gel Kinsei Blast LE 'Clear Blue' (1012B178-401) · Asics Wmns Gel Kinsei Blast LE 2 'Papaya' (1012B411-700)
The original Gel-Kinsei was, for a stretch of the mid-2000s, the most expensive running shoe on the market, and it carried more Gel than anything else the brand made. That was the entire pitch: everything ASICS knew about cushioning stacked into one shoe, with a price to match.
The Blast is a full redesign that keeps the ambition rather than the parts. A Pebax plate runs the length of the midsole, sandwiched between FF Blast Plus foam and Gel, which gives the shoe a rigidity the old Kinsei never had. ASICS has said the midsole profile draws on the curve of a katana and the knit upper on samurai armour, protective without restricting movement. Testers have generally read the result as a heavy, high-mileage daily trainer rather than a fast one, closer in spirit to the maximalist and plated shoes it was launched among than to its own ancestors.
This is the second limited-edition run, in olive oil with electric red accents, and it went out on the second of January 2023.