A pillowy soft ride or an overly clunky and heavy workhorse? With the Asics Nimbus 25 now retailing for under £100 on many platforms, should you be snapping it up… or keeping your powder dry?
Overview
The Asics Nimbus 25 is impressively durable. At its current price of around GBP 90, it represents solid value. However, the cushioning is a bit firmer than expected, lacking the “pillow soft” feel some reviewers say they’ve experienced.
On long runs, especially marathons, it feels heavy and clunky, and the high stack height isn’t ideal.
Color options and aesthetics also disappoint me. While great for daily training, I’d hesitate to recommend this for speedwork or race days.
3-word Review
A steady tank!
Pros
- Durable
- Practical
- Dependable
- Good cushioning
Cons
- Clunky feel on longer runs
- Not particularly wide
- Maybe not a great pick for fans of super-bouncy maximalist shoes
What I Like About It
Asics – and the Nimbus range in particular – truly excel at creating maximalist, cushioned running shoes that perform well in all weather conditions and on most surfaces.
And the Asics Nimbus 25 is pretty much the embodiment of that. This shoe is nowhere near my favourite Nimbus (and I have owned many!), but it feels like it may be the most robust of the range to date, perhaps even more so than subsequent Nimbus shoes.
These shoes’ durability is impressive. I have run a marathon in them, and used them for speed sessions and trail runs. In all, I have probably run well over 1,000km (621 miles) in them, often in some pretty treacherous conditions.
And while they now look a little weather-beaten, if I gave them a clean up, they’d look next to new – minus a little bit of wear on the soles.
As is the case with all my other Nimbus shoes, once I “retire” these shoes, I will probably keep them around as daily walking shoes that I can still run in every now and then.
Even my oldest pair of Asics shoes still has a role: They have become my indoor trainers in my home gym!
If your goal is to find an inexpensive (the Nimbus 25 is heavily discounted now as stocks dwindle) daily trainer that can eat up miles and provide you with maximal cushioning, this is a great pick.
The heel tab at the pack is also great, and helps reduce the wear and tear of the back of the shoe – always a bit of a weak point otherwise with Nimbus trainers.
What I Don’t Like About It
While many reviews praise the cushioning of this shoe as “pillow soft” or “marshmallow-like,” I don’t feel that at all with the Nimbus range. And this is particularly the case with the Nimbus 25.
In fact, compared to many other maximalist shoes, these feel much firmer and more solid underfoot.
So if you are buying this hoping to feel like you are running on the clouds, you may be disappointed.
Instead, they feel very firm underfoot, almost as if the gel is packed in a little too tightly to provide any spongy, bouncy feel.
They also feel quite heavy, which is normal for a maximalist shoe. I ran a marathon in these, but ended up regretting my choice in the final few kilometers. When your legs are super-tired, they do start feeling slightly clunky.
I also feel like they are stacked up a little too high. I know this is a minimalist shoe, but it feels like I am teetering over the ground on these trainers.
In terms of aesthetics, I am also not really sold on these.
Perhaps looking good is an afterthought for many runners. But none of the colour choices really stand out to me, and the aesthetic design feels like an afterthought here.
My Experience in The Asics Nimbus 25
I bought these shoes back in August 2024, and they have been my go-to trainers for 12 months.
They are a practical all-rounder. Yes, they might not look very cool, feel feather-light or be very new anymore.
But for marathon long run sessions, slower runs and recovery sessions, these are very good shoes indeed.
They are practical, dependable and durable. A real tank.
Durability
Excellent. No real signs of wear or tear after a very punishing 12 months on my feet in all sorts of weather and on all sorts of surfaces.
Fit
True to size, but feel slightly tight on the sides.
I’m not sure if people with wider feet will feel truly comfortable in these.
Upper
Unremarkable and possibly over-engineered. Not very breathable, but the breathability sacrifice seems to come with a silver lining: more durability.
Cushioning
Possibly overly firm for some people, but these are still very much maximalist shoes, so expect them to be easy on your joints and protect your feet from unpleasantly jagged rocks.
Sole & Grip
Very good grip on most surfaces. The Asics Nimbus 25 struggles on the more technical of trails in really muddy or wet conditions, but I’d expect that to be the case.
These are primarily road shoes, after all.
Weight
These come out at 290g on my scales.
That’s fine for a maximalist shoe, but they still feel kind of clunky at the tail end of long distances.
Reflective Details?
A tiny little reflective loop at the back is all you get. And if that gets caked in mud, you don’t even get that.
Asics doesn’t really do well on reflective elements for footwear.
Is it Vegan?
Yes. Asics says this one is vegan (per its own standards), as are almost all of their running shoes.
The Asics website is helpfully quite clear about this.
Scorecard
Some Other Great Reviews of these Shoes:
Check out RunRepeat’s comprehensive review and Run4Adventure’s concise YouTube post on this.
Closing Thoughts
Great shoes for chewing up miles in all kinds of weather. Not really a race day shoe or something that excels at speedwork.
Not much in the looks department either.
But if practicality and durability are what you are after in a daily trainer, the Asics Nimbus 25 is a great, budget-friendly pick.
