Asics Gel Fuji Racer - First Impressions

Purple shoes eh?

**  This review seems to be getting a lot of traffic so I will continue to update it, based on my experiences with the Gel Fuji Racers.  These will be marked with asterisks  **

You can read my review of the Gel Fuji Trainer 2 here: trainer 2 review

I must admit, the shoe I was most looking forward to in 2012 was the New Balance MT110.  I dont think that I was alone in anticipation, however, there are quite a few new light-weight shoes to be excited about that are being released this spring.  Included in this is the first lightweight trail racer from Asics, the Gel Fuji Racer.

After running quite a bit in the 110, I was curious as to what other shoes this spring had to offer, perhaps after realizing there is no way I could run 100 miles in the 110s.  This led me to look for shoes with a little more substance underfoot, and sported a 4-8mm drop.  Fitting directly into this category was the Fuji Racer.  Weighing in at about 9 ounces and sporting a 6mm heel to toe offset, this shoe reminds me a lot of a road shoe that is close to my heart, the Asics Gel Hyperspeed (Ryan Hall's preferred racing shoe).  It has a wide forefoot, and a stable feel underfoot.  One of the things I noticed right away was that this shoe was light and surprisingly flexible for a trail shoe with a rock plate.

Multi-directional lugs and drainage holes

The light weight is achieved through several modifications.  While the Fuji's sport a fairly well built heel counter, the rest of the upper is soft and contains minimal materials and overlays.  The second way the light weight is achieved is through several cut-out vents or drains placed in the bottom of the shoe.  This styling can be found in several other Asics models, and its main purpose is the provide weight savings.  However, for me, this also serves as a drain so that the shoes can drain quickly after a water crossing.  That being said, I always noticed rocks stabbing my feet through the holes in my gel hyperspeeds.  Asics solved this problem but reinforcing the drains with plastic to help support and strengthen them.  I have yet to get stabbed with a rock through the holes, so I figure it works.

Pretty flexible in the forefoot

Traction on this shoe is modest, the multidirectional lugs stand out from the outsole enough that they get good grip in light mud, but not enough that they can compare to a fell shoe or true mud specific shoe.   On hardpack trail these shoes excel, and I havent had the chance to try them on anything super rocky yet, but I dont expect them to be as sticky as the rubber on the MT110. 

Probably the strongest assets the Fuji Racer has to offer is that 1) they have plenty of cushion in a light weight package 2) they seem very flexible in the forefoot and 3) they transition nicely onto road surface.  In fact they work so nicely on roads, that I have been running my road runs and occasional treadmill runs in them.  The Solyte eva compound used in the midsole is plenty forgiving.  They also seem to have a very durable rubber on the outsole, as I don't see any substantial wear despite taking these shoes off-trail.  I plan on getting in some real longs run wearing the Fuji Racers in the next couple weeks, so I will update this review with a more substantial review of how the function on long trail runs, but I have high hopes.  They are incredibly comfortable, have a gussetted tongue, a small lace garage, and can be tied down tightly without bruising my feet on downhills which really helps the agile feel of the shoe.

The only downside of the shoe so far is that the heel feels a little chunky, sometimes getting in the way of a clean midfoot strike.  The wide heel does provide a nice stable ride though.

Wide heel and two more vents/drains in the midfoot

Check back later for more thoughts.

****  So I have had these shoes for a couple weeks now, and have had the chance to log some miles.  Overall I think the Fuji Racers have great potential to be a durable every day trainer type trail shoe.  They dont really excell well at any particular type of terrain, but rather are proficient on most types of trail I have run.  The negatives of these shoes include the strange drains in the bottoms of each shoe.  The ones in the forefoot become palpable with your feet due to the plastic supporting them.  2)  The vents in the bottom of the shoes let in cold mud/slush from trails and dirt roads which is unpleasant.  Hopefully the drains are helpful in the summer when the feet heat up otherwise they are pretty useless.  They are plenty comfortable and protective to be a very usable shoe, but dont really inspire me to run fast or push hard for some reason (this might be a good thing!).****

****  Ran the entire Winona Lake 50 mile wearing the Gel Fuji's.  Never had to change socks or shoes.  A little more debris came in through the bottom vents than I would have preferred, but the cushioning, protection and flexibility was excellent.  Any small niggles from the shoe did not get magnified over the course of the race.  ****

Has anyone else tried these out?  What do you think?

Brooks Pure$hit

Ok so maybe the title is a little dramatic.  I got a pair of these almost immediately after they were released and was overall very excited about a 4mm heel to toe drop trail shoe with input from ultrarunning legend Scott Jurek.  As soon as I got these shoes I thought - if I wanted to look this ridiculous I would have bought Hokas.  Several clown shoe comments later I was out the door for my first road to trail run in them.
     One of the first things I noticed was that when I was lacing them up I couldn't get them as snug around my foot as I would have liked.  I have wide feet, but they are not very tall (does that make sense?) and found myself lacing the shoes up as tight as I could in order to try to secure my mid-foot. This made the useless "nav-band" seem even more useless as it floated about with absolutely no tension.  They also seemed to be wayyy to long in my normal 10.5.  I thought it wouldnt be an issue and might be nice to not bump my toes.

Photo - Therunnersvibe.com

     Standing still I could feel the "footpod" underneath my midfoot and thought the shoe had a nice rocker feel.  It was strange, but I had read on irunfar.com that the footpod wasn't noticeable once you start running.  So I started running.  Once I hit the trails I immediately noticed the great traction.  This was one of the things that had excited me about these shoes - I love lugged outsoles.  The puregrit really bit in to the ground and I found myself happy with the amount of protection and cushion that the bio-go material provided.  They kind of reminded me of my old cascadia IV with the amount of cushion and protection.  Surprising for a "minimalist" type shoe.
      As I was running in these shoes I could not no matter how many times I retied my shoes or tried different size socks, get my heel to lock down.  Brookes didn't include the extra eyelet on these shoes, perhaps thinking their "nav-bad" would do the trick.  It did not.  I never noticed any dramatic changes from the split toe design so I am going to go ahead and say it - Gimmick.  Same with the nav-bad - Gimmick (how did wear testers not let Brookes know about this?).  And the foot-pod, well it does let you know where you are landing, but I just never got comfortable with it so...  Gimmick.
    The shoe did a nice job of encouraging a midfoot landing, and had just the right amount of flex, but I have to say I am not a fan of the foot-pod.  I know I have a slightly different strike point with my right foot than I do with my left foot, and the foot-pod continually reminded me of this, which began to annoy me to all ends.  I also started to worry about the pressure from the pod on my right foot would aggravate an old case of PF.  This is where my experience was so sour I called it quits with this shoe and it has since been shelved. 
     Overall, this shoe has some kickass features, awesome outsole, super comfy interior, and it was a great concept (low to the ground cushion performance trail shoe), but poorly executed with some gimmicky feeling additions.  I think Brookes should have tried not to be so cute and just made a shoe to compete with the Rogue Racer, MT101/110, Peregrine, etc.  Without the unnecesarys this shoe would have rocked (no pun intended).