My first run in it was 12 kilometres at an easy pace and I had never felt anything like it: it was super soft, very responsive and ultra bouncy all at the same time. There is no strobel lining underneath the insole so your feet sit directly on top of the soft ZoomX, which intensifies the plushness. People use this analogy a lot but it really felt like I had giant marshmallows under my feet. With each footstrike, my feet sank down into the soft foam. The moment I put the Invincible Run on and walked around, I could immediately tell that these shoes are something special. Sometimes running shoes have such unique step-in feeling that the first time you put them on, the experience gets ingrained in your memory. The finish reminded me of the FuelCell TC’s midsole. I like how the midsole has an iridescent finish that changes colour in the light. The highly padded outer collar and thick midsole stack height make it look clunky but it doesn’t feel as big a shoe as a Hoka Clifton or Bondi. I definitely wouldn’t call the Invincible Run an attractive shoe. Nike ZoomX Invincible Run First Impressions So will the Invincible Run be too much of a good thing and prove to be too rich for our taste or will it satisfy our ZoomX craving? In the food world, this would be the equivalent of a hamburger with only a large, juicy beef patty in between the buns: no lettuce, tomato, gherkins, sauce or even cheese.
This is the shoe that runners have been wanting for a very long time: a full length, 100% ZoomX midsole, without any carbon plate or other foams to water down the ZoomX’s super properties. I was disappointed with the Nike Vomero 15 because it has a ZoomX core inside its midsole but you don’t feel the ZoomX inside the shoe: it felt watered down and very ordinary when combined with another foam. It is arguably the lightest, most responsive, bounciest foam ever created. The Invincible Run focuses on high cushioning and high energy return. If I was in charge of naming the ZoomX Invincible Run, I would have named it the ZoomX Recoil or the ZoomX Boomerang.
The name “Invincible” conjures up images of a durable, bomb-proof workhorse-of-a-shoe that can handle thousands of kilometres a shoe without much flare but that gets the job done.