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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4vs
ASICS Metaspeed Ray

Adizero Adios Pro 4

£176

Typical street price · £230 RRP

39mm — road legal
Metaspeed Ray

approx £164

Estimated street price · £250 RRP

39.5mm — on the limit

Choose the Adizero Adios Pro 4 if…

  • You want something more forgiving. This is the steadier platform — useful if your form goes late, or if you are on your feet longer.
  • You want a conventional fit rather than a narrow or wide last.
  • You want more races out of one pair: about 260km of competitive life against 130km.
  • You are racing 10K — built for it, where the Metaspeed Ray is not.

Choose the Metaspeed Ray if…

  • You want the bigger return: 3.7–4.9% economy gain against 3.2–4.3%, and that gap widens the longer you are out there.
  • You want the lighter shoe: 129g against 210g, a 81g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • You race off a strong, repeatable stride and want the more aggressive ride rather than the safer one.
  • You have a narrow foot and want to be locked in.

What does this
mean for you?

Every figure below is recalculated from your race and your current time. The gap between two shoes is not fixed — it grows with how long you are on your feet.

Over marathon from 3:45:00

Time back
Adizero Adios Pro 4: 165s–240sMetaspeed Ray: 199s–280s
Cost per second saved
Adizero Adios Pro 4: £0.21Metaspeed Ray: £0.33

Ranges, not promises. Both figures are against a standard trainer, and the honest answer for most runners is that the difference between two shoes of this class is smaller than the difference a month of decent training makes.

Every number.

010203040503933
Adizero Adios Pro 4
0102030405039.534.5
Metaspeed Ray

What you pay

Street price
Adizero Adios Pro 4£176
Metaspeed Ray~£164■

A tilde marks an estimate: no shop we read is currently listing that shoe, so the figure is RRP less the discount comparable shoes are actually selling at.

RRP
Adizero Adios Pro 4£230
Metaspeed Ray£250

List price. Almost nobody pays it for a race shoe.

Cost per race
Adizero Adios Pro 4£43■
Metaspeed Ray£80

Street price divided by the races the foam stays fast for.

Cost per second saved
Adizero Adios Pro 4£0.21■
Metaspeed Ray£0.33

The whole-life question: what each second of race time costs you.

What it does

Estimated saving
Adizero Adios Pro 4165s–240s
Metaspeed Ray199s–280s■

Against a standard trainer, over the distance and time set above.

Economy gain
Adizero Adios Pro 43.2–4.3%
Metaspeed Ray3.7–4.9%■
Built for
Adizero Adios Pro 410K · Half · Marathon
Metaspeed RayHalf · Marathon
Best use case
Adizero Adios Pro 4The best value at the very top of the market. Within touching distance of the Evo 2 for performance at half the price and twice the life.
Metaspeed RayASICS answering the Adios Pro Evo directly. At 129g it is the lightest shoe here, and it feels like almost nothing on the foot.

How it is built

Weight
Adizero Adios Pro 4210 g
Metaspeed Ray129 g■

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Adizero Adios Pro 439 mm
Metaspeed Ray39.5 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Adizero Adios Pro 433 mm
Metaspeed Ray34.5 mm
Drop
Adizero Adios Pro 46 mm
Metaspeed Ray5 mm
Foam
Adizero Adios Pro 4Lightstrike Pro
Metaspeed RayFF Leap
Plate
Adizero Adios Pro 4carbon fibre
Metaspeed Raycarbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Adizero Adios Pro 4Yes (39 mm)
Metaspeed RayYes (39.5 mm)

World Athletics caps road racing shoes at 40 mm of stack.

Fit
Adizero Adios Pro 4standard
Metaspeed Raynarrow
Stability
Adizero Adios Pro 4balanced
Metaspeed Raydemanding

Neither is better in the abstract — it depends on your stride.

Race life
Adizero Adios Pro 4~260 km■
Metaspeed Ray~130 km

How long the foam stays fast, not how long the shoe survives.

Data confidence
Adizero Adios Pro 4verified
Metaspeed Rayverified

■ marks the better figure where one is genuinely better. Fit, foam, drop and stability carry no mark — they depend on your foot and your stride, not on which shoe is superior.

In your size.

Where to buy

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£150at Runningbear — £80 under RRP

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.

Where to buy

No retailer we can read publishes a live price for this shoe, so we cannot check your size. The links below go to each retailer’s own search, where they show the current price and what they hold.

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.