Adidas Boston 13 vs ASICS Superblast 2 – Daily Trainer Face-off

Stack Height, Drop, Weight and Price

The Adidas Boston 13 stack height packs 36mm in the heel and 30mm in the forefoot, for a 6mm drop. The ASICS Superblast 2 ramps the midsole wedge up a notch with 45mm in the heel and 37mm in the forefoot for an 8mm drop.

On weight, in a UK 8.5 / US9, the Adidas Boston 13 lands at 9.1.oz or 259g while the ASICS Superblast 2 comes in at 8.9oz / 254g in a UK 8.5 / US 9.5.

When it comes to price, the ASICS Superblast 2 comes at a premium. It’ll set you back $200 while you’ll pay $160 for the Adidas Boston 13.

Design

The Adidas Boston 13 and the ASICS Superblast 2 are designed to take care of the bulk of your daily mileage. Built with enough versatility and balance to cope with everything from easy to the faster efforts.

The ASICS Superblast 2 has a max-stack, wide platform with a dual-foam set-up, combining a full-length layer of the brand’s Flytefoam Turbo Plus (the same foam used in the ASICS Metaspeed range) with a slab of Flytefoam Blast Plus Eco foam. There’s no plate.

The Adidas Boston 13 also deploys the dual-foam design with Lightstrike Pro top layer and stability-boosting Lightstrike lower down. There’s now more Lightstrike Pro foam under the forefoot than we got in the Boston 12. That aims to give it a snappier feel. And the whole package is notably narrower and more compact than the Superblast 2.

Up top, the Adidas Boston 13 features new engineered mesh uppers. Some runners found the Boston 12 were a bit too minimal in the heel package but the tongue and heels now have more padding to add more training shoe comfort, for longer runs.

The ASICS Superblast 2 has an excellent engineered mesh upper that intelligently adds tighter-knit structure in some places and leaves flex and breathability in others. The heel collars shoot for thicker padding for a more plush heel hold.

Both shoes have gusseted tongues. The Superblast 2 tongues are thinner, flatter and more wrapping, while the almost-knitted tongues on the Boston 13 are thicker.

The Boston 13 outsole has a good covering of rubber with big pads of Continental in the main forefoot strike area and a back heel pad with Lighttraxion rubber elsewhere. The Superblast 2 uses ASICS’s grippiest outsole rubber – AHAR Plus. It’s thicker but more strategic with the coverage. 

Fit

In testing, I ran in my regular UK size in both brands which is an 8.5. In the US that’s a 9 in Adidas and a 9.5 in ASICS. 

The fit is very different. The Adidas Boston 13 has a markedly more hugging almost race fit with significantly less room in the toe box. The ASICS Superblast 2 is really generous into the forefoot with loads of clearance lengthwise and across the top of the toes. It might even feel a little too spacious for some.

I had no problem with midfoot lockdown or heel security in either, though the Superblast 2 has a little more plushness in the heel padding which might benefit some over longer miles.

If you were thinking of taking the Boston 13 beyond 90 minutes I’d recommend a half a size up. If you like things more snug, I might recommend dropping half a size in the Superblast 2. But generally speaking, for regular training runs up to an hour, I was happy sticking true to size in both shoes.

Performance

In testing, I’ve logged north of 50 miles in both shoes, pushing them across a range of paces and sessions. Everything from easy recovery runs, right up to 5km pace intervals.

My longest run in the Boston 13 took me up to 90 minutes on feet. Meanwhile I’ve taken the ASICS Superblast 2 up to 3.5 hours. Most of that was on the road but with some outings on light off-road.

These shoes are markedly different. Although they’re targeting similar runs, they're kind of chalk and cheese. The Superblast 2 is big, higher stacked, much softer with much more bounce coming back.

You get a deeper sink into that midsole foam and more springback energy when it returns. There's also much more cushion in the heel. So if you're a heel striker, and you land further back, the Superblast 2 offers more protection in the landing.

For such a high stack shoe, the Superblast 2’s big wide base offers some reliability underfoot but it's not as consistent, reliable and stable as the firmer, almost blockier, Boston 13.

You will need to like a bigger shoe to get on with the Superblast 2. If you like things more precise, more agile, more nimble, the Boston 13 is the way to go.

The Boston 13 ride relies much more on a quicker pickup. There's not a lot of compression in that midsole, everything returns fairly immediately. It can feel blocky by comparison to the Superblast 2.

The Boston 13 leans more into a mildly springy, responsiveness with a firmness. The base Lightstrike foam makes for a grounded, structured platform that offers a balance of cushion and stability.

It’s not a big bouncy ride and even might be a shade blocky. But that brings good stability with just enough versatility to handle endurance miles, as well as faster sessions.

Check Out My 17 Best Running Shoes Here

If you like a shoe that encourages quicker foot turnover and doesn’t coddle your stride, the Boston 13 delivers. It handles mid-to-uptempo paces well and still offers enough cushioning to take the sting out of the road – up to a point.