Strava’s 2025 Year in Sport report put the Novablast at the top of its most-worn running shoe list, and ASICS has now given that shoe a finish to match the ranking. The Novablast 6 Tenka runs a flame gradient across its woven upper, Energy Orange at the forefoot fading to white at the heel.
Price: $165
Where to buy: ASICS
The fade follows a flame’s own logic, saturated at the core and paling toward the tips of the shoe.
TENKA translates two ways in ASICS’ telling: “ignite” and “to reign supreme.” The name is a design brief, and the gradient is the part of the shoe built to carry it.
The kanji for TENKA is embroidered onto the heel counter, a stitched patch sitting exactly where the orange burns out to white. It is a small detail, and it is also the entire extent of the redesign. Everything underneath the finish, from the woven upper to the outsole rubber, is the standard Novablast 6 that has been on shelves since July.
Nothing underfoot changes
Start with the upper, because ASICS lists it unchanged. The engineered woven material wraps the foot with fewer overlays than a mesh build needs, which keeps the shoe light and lets it breathe on longer efforts.
A tongue wing construction anchors the midfoot, holding the tongue in place instead of letting it slide across the laces mid-run. Fit runs in a standard D width for men, with the neutral last the line has used all along.
The midsole is where this generation earned its following, and it transfers intact, FF BLAST MAX foam from heel to toe and the trampoline pod set into the forefoot.
That pod runs FF TURBO SQUARED, the liveliest foam ASICS makes, shaped to amplify the bounce at toe-off. It reached the Novablast line only with this sixth generation, borrowed from the MEGABLAST and SONICBLAST racers, and it sits inside a full-length bed of the softer FF BLAST MAX. The pairing is the ride: a cushioned landing, then a pod that pushes back as the foot rolls through, without dulling the landing.
The outsole split carries over as well. ASICSGRIP rubber covers the forefoot where wet pavement tests a daily trainer, and AHAR LO rubber sits in the key wear areas to keep the sole from chewing through at the heel.
Neither compound changes for the Tenka, and neither does the geometry.
The numbers hold exactly where the standard shoe set them in July. Stack height measures 41.5 millimeters at the heel and 33.5 at the forefoot, an 8 millimeter drop that suits the shoe’s daily-training brief. Weight is 253 grams in the men’s build, light for a maximum-cushion trainer wearing this much foam. Support is neutral, and ASICS rates the shoe for underpronation and neutral gaits alike.
Line for line, it is the July shoe’s spec sheet with a new paint code. ASICS even files the Tenka under its own style number, 1011C313.800, separate from the standard shoe’s codes. That separation also hands buyers a working check, since a listing wearing a standard shoe’s code is the standard shoe whatever its title claims.
That sameness is the pitch, not a flaw in it. The Novablast 6 built its following as the one-shoe rotation, happy on easy miles and club nights alike. The Tenka lets a runner buy that shoe in a finish that looks fast standing still.
The standard shoe is the US buy today
The Tenka is on sale now through ASICS’ regional stores, with New Zealand, Australia and Singapore listing it in stock. Each of those stores prices it a small step above the standard shoe on the same shelf. The gradient, in other words, is a priced option rather than a trim level. ASICS sells the Tenka in the US at $165 as a OneASICS member-access drop, men’s sizes 6 through 15 with sizes 6 and 6.5 already gone.
US runners shopping today meet the same shoe in its standard colorways, at a settled price and in stock.
Amazon carries the men’s Novablast 6 in Midnight/Energy at $154.95, in the full size run and the standard D width. Midnight/Energy is a launch colorway, not a leftover, and the listing carries the 4.4-star pace of a shoe that has been selling since July.
Choosing between the two is a finish decision and nothing more. The standard shoe runs the same pod, the same foam bed, the same woven upper and the same outsole split, so the Tenka’s premium buys color and embroidery rather than performance. Anyone already running in the sixth generation gains no new ride from the swap.
Price: $154.95
Where to buy: Amazon
Buy the Tenka if the flame fade is worth ordering through a regional ASICS store, and buy the standard shoe if you want the identical ride delivered this week. Either way you are buying the platform that put the Novablast on top of Strava’s list, and the platform is the part ASICS left alone.
Price: $165
Where to buy: ASICS
