CHARTING THE ASCENT OF SALOMON

The above quote from Georges Salomon, the industry pioneer and son of Salomon’s founder, offers a porthole into the world of the brand — a mantra rooted in curiosity of the unknown, catalysing decade after decade of innovation in the technical outerwear space. The brand’s origins date back to 1947 in the Alpine town of Annecy, France, with an initial direction that was far removed — at least on the surface — of the brand we know today.

It all began with François, Jean and George Salomon: a mother, father and son trio who started out creating steel sawblades in a metal workshop. Although seemingly worlds apart from the Salomon we know today, this laid the foundation for a pivot in direction for the Salomon family. Their expertise in manufacturing steel sawblades, coupled with their Alpine surroundings lighting bulbs of inspiration, led the family into manufacturing ski edges to allow enthusiasts to carve through surrounding slopes with ease.

From there, Salomon evolved into developing ski cable bindings — a type of ski binding highly popularised in the mid-20th century — with their groundbreaking innovation coming in the form of the Skade in 1955. Cable bindings, especially in the earlier half of the 20th century, were renowned for being dangerous, failing to release in crashes and causing injuries to wearers. The Skade was the antidote to the shortfalls of cable bindings, offering a toe-piece which was designed to release under pressure. Like any brilliant innovator, Salomon refined and evolved the Skade, examining ways in which it could be improved and offer enhanced safety. The result, two years after the Skade, was “Le Lift”: a world-first for binding, allowing the heel to be released — or lifted away, hence the name — under the influence of pressure, thereby reducing the chances of ski injuries.

Such a success were Salomon’s bindings that they remained its key focus until 1979, before branching out with its first ski boot that year, the rear-entry SX90: yet another first for the sport, possessing rear entry and heel retention technology. Crucial to note here was the man responsible for designing the SX90, Roger Tallon, the fearless French pioneer with a dazzling CV of innovations, including high-speed trains, architecture and even fine art. Fast forward to just over a decade later in 1990, and Salomon had made yet another leap of innovation, embarking on another branch in its ski segment that had been germinating in the background since 1984. The leap in question was the release of its very own skis, the S9000, boasting a monocoque structure instead of the common sandwich structure in the market at the time, which, according to a New York Times article from 1990, cost five years and $40 million to develop.

Naturally, being immersed in the mountainous landscapes of its Alpine roots, Salomon’s creative field of vision would soon broaden, with a pivotal milestone for the brand arriving in 1992. That year signified the label’s first step into the world of hiking footwear, marked by the release of the “Adventure Range”. The Adventure boot, which was derived from Salomon’s ski boots of the time, was the very cutting-edge of hiking footwear, both in its appearance and technology. It came with an internal fitting system — much like that of its ski-boot predecessors — which was constructed using nylon and mesh. On top of that was a water-repellent flap protecting the inner boot, with its most notable feature coming by way of a zipper that ran diagonally. It’s a design that stills looks progressive today, so you can imagine how it cut through back in ’92.

During the 1980s, adrenaline seekers across the globe had started to immerse themselves in a new style of fusion sport, one which involved bringing multiple disciplines — like off-road running, cycling and paddling — into one. It was named adventure racing, comprised of multi-sport races taken place in extreme conditions. It was the very first of those races, the legendary Raid Gauloises, that served as the testing ground for Salomon’s debut into trail running footwear, aptly named the Rade Race and worn by Salomon’s team on its debut. It was the rugged, exacting environment that required Salomon to develop innovative solutions rooted in durability, lightness and quick-drying properties. Thus, the Raid Race was born.

It was this love of adventure racing that served as the precursor for the early noughties boom of trail running, something which Salomon was sat at the epicentre of. While Salomon didn’t invent trail running, it served as arguably the biggest catalyst in its global explosion. Salomon acted as an exponent on multiple levels, both through its ground-breaking trail running technology and also through its amplification of the sport on a global scale. For instance, the first ever international trail running team, comprised of athletes such as Kilian Jornet, Courtney Dauwalter and François D’Haene, to name just a few, was established by Salomon. What the brand did was work closely with athletes of this caliber to create footwear informed by real-world experiences, fine tuning their designs with input from the best of the very best.

This brings us onto a key component of Salomon and trail running: its S/LAB range. S/LAB products represent the peak of performance footwear, created through a collaborative, back and forth relationship between Salomon’s design team and its world-class athletes. It’s within this lab-like division that a plethora of cutting-edge, zeitgeist-defining shoes have been born, like the much-loved XT-4 or the coveted XT-6 — both of which started out life as technical trail runners geared for harsh environments, but have now found themselves as fashion mainstays. It’s an approach that has fed into other Salomon trail shoes, too, like the Speedcross: the Reglan G Brewer-designed sneaker that largely reshaped the horizon of trail running, offering lightness, speed and protection like nothing that came before.

If you were to look back to a decade ago, it might have been hard to see that now, in 2023, a brand renowned for its technical trail runners and ski equipment would be so pervasive in the sneaker sphere. What was once a world dominated by big sportswear brands and their ubiquitous classics has undergone a seismic shift, with a consumer consciousness that’s broadened to become more technically minded. The cause for this cannot be narrowed down to any one singular event, rather a multitude that have intertwined, calcifying into the wildly popular movement we see today.

For Salomon specifically, the steady osmosis into the lifestyle space can be traced back to 2015 with The Broken Arm. It was this year that the Parisian boutique had started stocking Salomon, which was shortly followed by an official collaboration between the two on the Snowcross — a derivative of the much-loved Speedcross built for snow. This was just the beginning of the Salomon fashion crossover, with Boris Bidjan Saberi reimagining the technical sneaker within a more avant-garde, fashion-leaning context in 2016. The result was a trio of takes on the Speedcross, one in all-white, one in all-black and, most interestingly, a distressed olive green iteration. It was right around this time that Salomon embarked on another journey into the lifestyle sphere, launching its Sportstyle division. This would essentially see Salomon’s technical runners reworked within a more fashion-leaning context, all while ensuring that the true essence of the brand — to pursue innovation at all times — remained paramount.  

While Salomon’s shift from relative obscurity to permeating collective consciousness was well on its way, the waves of technical outerwear were rippling throughout the world of fashion, further fuelling the ever-increasing fanfare surrounding the brand. It’s a movement aptly summarised by the term gorpcore — an acronym for “good old raisins and peanuts” — that first entered the mainstream in 2017. Couple this with a global pandemic three years later and the gorpcore trend had reached maelstrom in the world of fashion, with near enough all aspects pulled in by its infectious whirlwind. Lockdown restrictions had meant that the desire to escape into the outdoors reached new heights, trickling its way down to the consumer choices of those looking for rugged, capable clothing and footwear. Further compounding this is the influential advocates organically wearing Salomon’s technical footwear; Pusha T, for instance, was an early adopter in the Salomon trend.

Since 2015, collaborations have proven pivotal in the seemingly unstoppable rise of Salomon, with the brand carefully curating its partnerships to further broaden its reach. It’s an approach that has been multifaceted, working alongside brands within similar circles to their own as well as stepping into new territories. Salomon and and Wander, for instance, is a representation of the former, where the two brands have forged an ongoing partnership rooted in technical innovation and outdoor exploration. While Salomon is keen to strengthen its connective fibres with other brands in the outerwear world, it’s equally unafraid to push boundaries, as its partnership with MM6 Maison Margiela showcases — a fusion of high fashion irreverence and outdoor sports. Salomon’s recent collaboration with Sandy Liang, too, evidences the ability to cut through with product that pushes boundaries, reworking the flagship XT-6 and RX Moc 3.0 through Liang’s vibrant and playful lens.

Beyond its partnerships with brands, Salomon has also partnered with retailers for bespoke takes on their coveted silhouettes. In 2022, UrlfreezeShops and Salomon joined forces for the first time with “Sirocco”, reworking the XT-Wings 2 with inspiration borrowed from the Sahara Desert and the toughest footrace on earth. This debut partnership has since blossomed into a follow up collaboration dubbed “Dark Truffle”, with UrlfreezeShops and Salomon diving into the world of foraging with a collaborative XT-6 sneaker. Salomon’s collaborations have even extended to Instagram moodboards with cult followings, like 2022’s sought-after XT-4 with Hidden NY. When looking at the broader picture of Salomon and its history, its meteoric rise in popularity is unsurprising. Here you have a brand that has positioned itself at the cutting-edge since day one, and it was only a matter of time before the wider world acknowledged its excellence.