Skip to content
40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

ASICS Magic Speed 5vs
Saucony Kinvara Pro

Magic Speed 5

£130

Typical street price · £150 RRP

38mm — road legal
Kinvara Pro

£99

Typical street price · £190 RRP

■ 42mm — over limit

Choose the Magic Speed 5 if…

  • Your race is run under World Athletics rules — this one is legal at 38mm and the Kinvara Pro is not.
  • You want the lighter shoe: 218g against 269g, a 51g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • You are racing 10K — built for it, where the Kinvara Pro is not.

Choose the Kinvara Pro if…

  • You want more shoe underneath you late on: 42mm against 38mm, which is protection over a long race rather than speed over a short one.
  • Money matters: it is selling around £99 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–158sKinvara Pro: 69s–145s
Cost per second saved
Magic Speed 5: £0.14Kinvara Pro: £0.10

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
010203040504234
Kinvara Pro

What you pay

Street price
Magic Speed 5£130
Kinvara Pro£99■

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

RRP
Magic Speed 5£150
Kinvara Pro£190

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

Cost per race
Magic Speed 5£16
Kinvara Pro£10■

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

Cost per second saved
Magic Speed 5£0.14
Kinvara Pro£0.10■

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

What it does

Estimated saving
Magic Speed 583s–158s■
Kinvara Pro69s–145s

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

Economy gain
Magic Speed 52–3.1%■
Kinvara Pro1.8–2.9%
Built for
Magic Speed 510K · Half · Marathon
Kinvara ProHalf · 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.
Kinvara ProA plated long-run trainer rather than a racer. Comfortable, durable, and very good at what it is actually for.

How it is built

Weight
Magic Speed 5218 g■
Kinvara Pro269 g

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Magic Speed 538 mm
Kinvara Pro42 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Magic Speed 531 mm
Kinvara Pro34 mm
Drop
Magic Speed 57 mm
Kinvara Pro8 mm
Foam
Magic Speed 5FF Blast Turbo
Kinvara ProPWRRUN PB over PWRRUN
Plate
Magic Speed 5carbon fibre
Kinvara Procarbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Magic Speed 5Yes (38 mm)■
Kinvara ProNo (42 mm)

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

Fit
Magic Speed 5standard
Kinvara Prostandard
Stability
Magic Speed 5stable
Kinvara Prostable

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

Race life
Magic Speed 5~500 km
Kinvara Pro~600 km■

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

Data confidence
Magic Speed 5estimated
Kinvara Proverified■

■ 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£99at Startfitness — £91 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.