Asics Gel Renma

The Asics Gel Renma is a court shoe from Asics that is targeted to pickleball players but can also be used for squash or other indoor court sports. The Gel Renma was first released in 2021. The design has good grip on the sole, and the upper material appears to be quite durable, but the shoe perhaps lacks a bit in breathability.

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Table of Contents

Below you’ll find the following information about the Asics Gel Renma:

• Design and Marketing
• Reviews
• Men’s Models
• Women’s Models

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Asics Gel Renma Design and Marketing

Here’s something from Asics explaining the design of the shoes:

This is a dumb video from Asics about the shoe:

This bit in the video though 😂😂😂😂😂:

Specifically designed for pickleball players.

Tested by real pickleball athletes.

I’m laughing right now because the guy in the red shirt violates TWO of the most distinctive rules in pickleball:

1. You can’t volley the serve return.
2. You can’t land in the kitchen after you volley.

But damn if he doesn’t lose the point in style with that windmill slam.

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Asics Gel Renma Review

In January 2022 I bought myself a pair of these to test out. Here’s an unboxing video if you want a quick peek:

Here’s the part about the Gel Renma:

First up, from Asics in the US, it’s a new shoe that we haven’t tried before. This may be only available in the United States right now, I’m not totally sure. This is called the Asics Gel Renma, which sounds vaguely Chinese, but it is a pickleball shoe from Asics. A pickleball shoe. That’s right: pickleball gets its own shoe and it looks like this. And the reason I got this is both for pickleball and for squash. I’m gonna try it on both sports and see how they play. These cost $80 at asics.com. $80. I got the black and white model. This has got a gum rubber sole that looks pretty intriguing for the squash court. I always like the gum rubber option. Let’s see what else we got here. We’ve got a loud cat. Hang on. You’re all wet! Kitty loves the new shoes. He loves them. Okay, you may go. So. We’re gonna give these a test on the courts and come back to you with some more in-depth reviews of the Asics Gel Renma. First just a quick look-over of these shoes. Got a little stability on the arch there. We’ve got decent styling, decent toe drag protection here, and what looks like a pretty supportive shoe overall. We’re gonna give those a shot.

Since making that video, I’ve also done a more complete video review of the Asics Gel Renma. I’m definitely going to be including it on my list of the best squash shoes.

Here’s the video:

And here’s a trancript:

What’s up you guys, it’s Pierre. Today I have a review of a new shoe from Asics called the Asics Gel Renma, R-E-N-M-A. This is new in 2022 I think — or maybe it came out at the end of last year. This is a court shoe from Asics. It is specifically pitched to pickleball players but I bought it to try for squash because I could see that it was pretty similar to a lot of Asics’s squash shoes and I figured it would translate well. I’ve got some feedback for you on the shoe in this video. I paid $80 (USD) for this. I think I bought it from asics.com. I’ve noticed that it’s not just a US shoe. I saw it on the UK Asics website even though pickleball is mainly thought of as a US sport. It’s going global, and so are the shoes. This is a — what is it? — on my scale, 370 grams, so not the lightest shoe around but not the heaviest.

I’m gonna do a video right after this comparing this with the Asics Gel Fastball 3, the Asics Gel Rocket 10, and the Asics Gel Tactic (the newest model) so if you want to hear more about how this compares to other shoes in the Asics range, subscribe, and you will get that video next. I’m going to record it right after this. But back to the Renma. I tried this out on the squash court and the first day that I used it I played in a very high level training match and it was great. The first thing I always look for is the grip on the court. It’s the most important thing. If there’s any sliding or whatever, to me, that’s just dangerous for my body. I can’t handle — or I don’t want, and I can’t risk — any injuries for that kind of thing. This shoe’s grip was excellent right out of the box. I never once slipped. I’ve used it three or four times now so this review is happening pretty soon after starting to try these because I really like these. These are going to go on my list of best squash shoes which I’ll link below this video. They will hopefully be available worldwide. Like I said, I saw them in the UK.

A couple things. The height off of the ground is … it feels a little higher off … they’re not very low to the ground, let’s just say it that way. They’re kind of medium height, I guess I would say, and a minor criticism is I maybe didn’t feel as close to the ground as the Fastball, which is a much more expensive shoe, but these felt totally adequate. I felt comfortable with my stability in addition to the grip and they provided good padding for my knees. I didn’t have any issues there. They come in a few different styles. I’ve got the black one here. It’s kind of your basic Asics look, this black and white. The materials feel pretty nice all around. I will say that the insole is quite nice. It’s removable and of a good quality, so if you need to take these out for your orthotics or you just want to air them out, it’s quite easy.

One thing that I am a little concerned about is the top of the upper here by the toe. There’s not a whole lot of breathability in this. It’s a fairly closed toe with only a few little air holes here to let your feet air out. I didn’t have any problems with the breathability of the shoes when I was playing with them for the several times that I have, but that’s something to keep an eye out for. I’ve found so far that the toe drag is quite good. This goes up pretty high even for Asics’s court shoes so I feel comfortable that these are going to provide some protection. We’ll see over time. I’m already dragging a little bit there on my right toe as normal. The lace-up on these is nice. The laces are pretty thick. It’s more of a cosmetic thing but for some reason the way they’ve designed this, there’s this fold in the front here, at least for my feet, but that’s really just cosmetic. The width on these, when I was trying them on, I thought they were maybe a little narrow, which is kind of the case for Asics. I’m gonna go through it in the video after this, but compared to the other Asics shoes actually, once I really put them all on, I found that this was pretty standard compared to a lot of the other Asics models. So on the whole, a big fan of these already, and looking forward to continuing to put them through the paces. These are called the Asics Gel Renma. Alright I will see in the next video. See you later. Bye.

Also also did yet ANOTHER review of the Asics Gel Renma, after testing them out extensively on the pickleball courts. I continue to rate these shoes really highly.

Transcript:

What’s up you guys it’s Pierre. I have a review today of the Asics Gel Renma Court shoes — pickleball shoes — from Asics. This is what they’re pitched as from Asics. I’ve done a review of these already for the squash crowd which you can check out from a few months ago.

I bought them because they were marketed as pickleball shoes but I could see from the photos that they looked like they would do pretty well on the squash court, which they were. They had good grip, they were a good value for money shoe on the squash court. But I put them aside and I went back to using my regular shoes which happened to be the Asics Gel Fastball 3 currently which are a little bit lighter and I’m just used to them so these sat in my basement for a bit and this year I got really into pickleball if you have seen the last couple videos of mine and I decided, well, these are pickleball shoes, I might as well try them out on the pickleball courts rather than saving them for some future date on the squash court and that’s exactly what I did. So I have been playing with these all season long on the pickleball courts, since February. These shoes, they still are going strong I would say. I’m gonna retire them just because they’re starting to lose their tread.

These things are absolute beasts — rock stars of stability and durability. I mean I’ve worn them all the way down through the gum rubber. The tread is almost completely gone where I drag my foot on the pickleball court. Interestingly, different drag pattern than on my squash shoes. This is completely worn down. The toe, my left toe, is breaking through. Both toes are actually breaking through. Oh well, now it’s totally broken through. So this is why I was getting rid of them. I was like, I didn’t want to have these break on me in the middle of a match or something but these have held up incredibly well. They were very good shoes on court.

The grip was great, my ankle stability was great, they’re light enough, they’re durable enough, the price point was was good enough. I can’t remember what they were, let me see. 80 to 90 bucks at the moment. Yeah so these are just a really good all-around shoe.

I’ve seen a lot of players at my courts, my pickleball courts, wearing these and the reality is I learned this from one of the stores … from one of the stores that I deal with. I won’t name them by name at this point but the one of the owners there told me, he’s like, I said why does Asics say this is a pickleball shoe instead of a squash shoe? Or you know what’s the deal with that? And what he told me was that Asics will take a shoe and they will for liability reasons they will test it thoroughly for one sport so that they can confidently say okay this shoe has been tested out for this particular sport. They don’t want to have let’s say an injury or a whole bunch of injuries from players and get like lawsuits. They want to be able to show that they’ve tested these things out for a particular sport and this shoe, the Renma, this is their pickleball shoe. Now you could probably take any Asics shoe and put it on the pickleball court and it will work fine but Renma is their dedicated pickleball shoe and it has worked great and there are tons of players at my local courts wearing these. They seem happy with them so Asics has done a good job with this and I expect we’re gonna see this shoe a lot.

So that again is the Asics Gel Renma. Check them out. I’ll see you in the next video — bye!

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Men’s Asics Gel Renma Models

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White / Blue Expanse

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Black / Lime Burst

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Illusion Blue / White

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Indigo Blue / White

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White / Deep Ocean

Official shoe of Abe, who plays pickleball with me at the Water Tower.

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Lake Drive / Hazard Green

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White / Shocking Orange

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Black / White

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White / Black

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Deep Sea Teal / Glow Yellow

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Electric Red / Black

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Women’s Asics Gel Renma Models

Sapphire / Light Sapphire

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White / Eggplant

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White / Dive Blue

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Sky / Indigo Blue

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Periwinkle Blue / French Blue

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White / Pure Silver

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Lapis Lazuli Blue / Blazing Coral

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Black / White