When taking advice about any runner or reading review like this, you should always consider the perspective that the writer is coming from when doing a review. Mainly for runners, you need to know what runner the writer regularly runs in, this will give you an idea of when he/she says "soft", "spacious" etc, how that compares with your definition of the same.
For me, although I have around 5 different runners, at present, my 'go-to' runner for the past few years has been the Asics Cumulus. I will include this in comparisons below, along with other runners.
About the Nimbus
The Nimbus has always been Asics soft runner and probably the choice runner for marathon runners around the world. In the last version, the Nimbus 19, Asics introduced their Flytefoam technology to the Nimbus and made it a much firmer runner. So if you have been running in the Nimbus for years and have yet to make the move to a pair of 19's or 20's, you might need to prepare yourself for a change. It's not the soft cushion it once was.Narrow vs Wide
I'm told also told that the latest Nimbus is much narrower than previous versions. This is one of those situations where perspective is important. To me the Nimbus 20 feels like a wide base runner, this would be compared to the Cumulus and especially the GT-2000. I've actually put them all 'sole-to-sole' and it's especially true in the forefoot.So if you are used to Nimbus, it's narrower, if you are used to other runners, it's probably wider. But what does that mean? Well the positive is more stability on the longer runs. The negative, but maybe this is in my head, is that the others would be better for speed.
Airy vs Porous
The engineered mesh is a very open, designed to be more breathable and flexible. And it certainly delivers on this. So if you are a runner who suffers from heat in your feet, and there are many, this is a brilliant update.A word of caution though, it's not just the air that gets through, I took them out in the rain one day and my feet were soaked!
My Nimbus 20's in the cold weather in Cork, then in the very hot temperatures in Florida, the famous 10 mile clay loop. The airy structure was good here. See Instagram for more.
What I liked
These are a great runner to take out on longer runs. Although they may not be as soft as previous versions, they had plenty of softness for me. And they have a good solid structure, so still an ideal runner for marathoners.
What I didn't like
I won't be using them for short races, but to be fair I don't think that's where Asics are positioning them. There are far better runners in the Asics line that are built for speed.
I also wasn't mad about the wet weather performance, as I'm ok with the standard level of ventilation of other runners.
Final Verdict
There's not a huge difference between Nimbus and Cumulus, but you can expect to see these Nimbus 20 on my for the Dublin Marathon this year!
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