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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

ASICS Magic Speed 5vs
Nike Zoom Fly 6

Magic Speed 5

£130

Typical street price · £150 RRP

38mm — road legal
Zoom Fly 6

£110

Typical street price · £165 RRP

40mm — on the limit

Choose the Magic Speed 5 if…

  • You want the bigger return: 2–3.1% economy gain against 1.5–2.6%, and that gap widens the longer you are out there.
  • You want the lighter shoe: 218g against 248g, a 30g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • You are racing 10K — built for it, where the Zoom Fly 6 is not.

Choose the Zoom Fly 6 if…

  • Money matters: it is selling around £110 against £130, and the time difference between them is smaller than the price difference suggests.
  • You want more races out of one pair: about 600km of competitive life against 500km.
  • You would rather buy on measured numbers: this shoe's specs are manufacturer-confirmed, the Magic Speed 5's are estimated.

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
Magic Speed 5: 83s–158sZoom Fly 6: 49s–124s
Cost per second saved
Magic Speed 5: £0.14Zoom Fly 6: £0.13

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.

010203040503831
Magic Speed 5
010203040504032
Zoom Fly 6

What you pay

Street price
Magic Speed 5£130
Zoom Fly 6£110■

What the shoe is actually selling for across the shops we read, not its RRP.

RRP
Magic Speed 5£150
Zoom Fly 6£165

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

Cost per race
Magic Speed 5£16
Zoom Fly 6£12■

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

Cost per second saved
Magic Speed 5£0.14
Zoom Fly 6£0.13■

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

What it does

Estimated saving
Magic Speed 583s–158s■
Zoom Fly 649s–124s

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

Economy gain
Magic Speed 52–3.1%■
Zoom Fly 61.5–2.6%
Built for
Magic Speed 510K · Half · Marathon
Zoom Fly 6Half · Marathon
Best use case
Magic Speed 5The best entry point to carbon. Real plate, real super foam, durable enough to train in, and about half the price of the flagships.
Zoom Fly 6The sensible answer for a first marathon. Carbon plate, durable foam, a third of the cost per race of an Alphafly because it lasts more than twice as long.

How it is built

Weight
Magic Speed 5218 g■
Zoom Fly 6248 g

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Magic Speed 538 mm
Zoom Fly 640 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Magic Speed 531 mm
Zoom Fly 632 mm
Drop
Magic Speed 57 mm
Zoom Fly 68 mm
Foam
Magic Speed 5FF Blast Turbo
Zoom Fly 6ZoomX over SR-02
Plate
Magic Speed 5carbon fibre
Zoom Fly 6carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Magic Speed 5Yes (38 mm)
Zoom Fly 6Yes (40 mm)

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

Fit
Magic Speed 5standard
Zoom Fly 6standard
Stability
Magic Speed 5stable
Zoom Fly 6stable

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

Race life
Magic Speed 5~500 km
Zoom Fly 6~600 km■

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

Data confidence
Magic Speed 5estimated
Zoom Fly 6verified■

■ 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£119at Startfitness — £31 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

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£109.99at Run North West — £55 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.