Asics Tartheredge 3 'Mako Blue Hazard Green'
Colorway: Mako Blue/Hazard Green · Style code: 1011B214-400 · Release date: June 2021 · Price: $2682 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Asics Tartheredge 3 'White Performance Red' (1011B214-100) · Asics Tartheredge 3 'Safety Yellow Monaco Blue' (1011B214-750)
Race flats mostly vanished when carbon plates and 40mm midsoles arrived, but ASICS kept building them, in large part because the Japanese market kept buying them. The Tartheredge is the clearest surviving example: a thin, flexible, low-stack shoe with a grippy outsole and just enough foam to take the edge off road impact.
It belongs to the Tarther series, a platform ASICS has been refining since the 1980s and which also includes the domestically produced Tarther Japan. Where a modern super-shoe perches the runner on top of a soft stack and rolls them forward, the Tartheredge sits the foot close to the road and leaves the mechanics alone. FlyteFoam in the midsole is the one concession to the modern era, a 2016 compound that saves weight without letting the shoe go harsh.
Mako Blue with Hazard Green is characteristic of the line, which has always used strong colour on a small shoe.