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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

ASICS Metaspeed Sky Tokyovs
Nike Alphafly 3

Metaspeed Sky Tokyo

£200

Typical street price · £250 RRP

39.5mm — on the limit
Alphafly 3

£203

Typical street price · £285 RRP

40mm — on the limit

Choose the Metaspeed Sky Tokyo if…

  • You want the lighter shoe: 183g against 218g, a 35g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • You are racing 10K — built for it, where the Alphafly 3 is not.

Choose the Alphafly 3 if…

Nothing here separates it from the Metaspeed Sky Tokyo in your favour. On this data the other shoe answers every case at least as well, so buy this one only if you already know it fits you better.

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
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo: 186s–266sAlphafly 3: 179s–260s
Cost per second saved
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo: £0.22Alphafly 3: £0.23

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.

0102030405039.534.5
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo
010203040504032
Alphafly 3

What you pay

Street price
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo£200■
Alphafly 3£203

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

RRP
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo£250
Alphafly 3£285

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

Cost per race
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo£51■
Alphafly 3£51

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

Cost per second saved
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo£0.22■
Alphafly 3£0.23

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

What it does

Estimated saving
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo186s–266s■
Alphafly 3179s–260s

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

Economy gain
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo3.5–4.7%■
Alphafly 33.4–4.6%
Built for
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo10K · Half · Marathon
Alphafly 3Half · Marathon
Best use case
Metaspeed Sky TokyoFor stride-length runners — the Sky is built to let your stride open up rather than turn over faster. Arguably the best all-round marathon shoe currently made.
Alphafly 3Still the reference marathon shoe. The Air pods give a propulsive forefoot that nothing else quite replicates, and the wider platform makes it manageable late in a race when your form has gone.

How it is built

Weight
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo183 g■
Alphafly 3218 g

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo39.5 mm
Alphafly 340 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo34.5 mm
Alphafly 332 mm
Drop
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo5 mm
Alphafly 38 mm
Foam
Metaspeed Sky TokyoFF Leap over FF Turbo+
Alphafly 3ZoomX with Air Zoom pods
Plate
Metaspeed Sky Tokyocarbon fibre
Alphafly 3carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Metaspeed Sky TokyoYes (39.5 mm)
Alphafly 3Yes (40 mm)

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

Fit
Metaspeed Sky Tokyostandard
Alphafly 3standard
Stability
Metaspeed Sky Tokyobalanced
Alphafly 3balanced

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

Race life
Metaspeed Sky Tokyo~250 km
Alphafly 3~250 km

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

Data confidence
Metaspeed Sky Tokyoverified
Alphafly 3verified

■ 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£199.90at Startfitness — £50.10 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£199.99at Run North West — £85 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.