Salomon

Salomon was founded in 1947 by François Salomon and his wife Jeanne in the Alpine town of Annecy, France. The company began as a small metalworking shop producing saw blades, but a pivot to ski equipment in the 1950s changed its destiny. Salomon revolutionized winter sports with innovations like the first ski binding with a mechanical release (1957), rear-entry ski boots (1972), and eventually became the world's largest ski equipment manufacturer. The brand was acquired by Adidas in 1997 and later by the Finnish Amer Sports group in 2005, which expanded its scope into trail running, hiking, and outdoor lifestyle.

Salomon's entry into footwear in the 1990s proved transformative. The brand brought its alpine engineering expertise to trail running, creating shoes that combined extreme durability, grip, and protection for mountain terrain. The Speedcross series — with its aggressive lug pattern inspired by motocross tires — became the best-selling trail shoe in the world, while the S/Lab performance line tested the limits of ultra-distance racing. Salomon athletes have dominated events like UTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc) and Western States, cementing the brand's reputation as the gold standard in trail running.

In a remarkable cultural shift, Salomon has recently been embraced by the fashion world. The XT-6, XT-4, and ACS Pro — originally designed as high-performance trail shoes — have become streetwear staples, appearing in collaborations with Comme des Garçons, Palace, Sandy Liang, and The Broken Arm. This unexpected crossover from mountain trails to fashion capitals reflects a broader gorpcore trend while validating Salomon's distinctive design language: technical, functional, and unmistakably Alpine.