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Salomon’s spring 2025 campaign, led by DDB Paris. <\/p>\n
DDB Paris<\/p>\n
Ask anyone born before the 1990s about Salomon, and they\u2019ll likely think of skiing. Founded in the French Alps, the brand became a pioneer in winter sports equipment, starting with its first toe piece for ski bindings in the 1950s followed by the SX90 and SNS Nordic ski boots. In just a few years, Salomon had established itself as a reference in alpine performance.<\/p>\n
Today, less than 10% of its sales come from skiing. The brand is now better known for trail running, hiking, and increasingly, urban wear. The XT-6 shoe has become one of Salomon\u2019s emblematic products \u2014 worn as much by individuals pacing through city streets than those running on mountain trails. Guiding this evolution is Scott Mellin, who joined as Chief Brand Officer in 2023 with a clear mission: to transform and grow Salomon\u2019s global influence, without losing sight of its roots.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvented In The Mountains, Reinvented In Paris\u201d<\/p>\n
Since evolving from its skiing heritage, Salomon anchored itself in trail running. Its focus remains to engineer the best solutions for athletes, guided by innovation and performance. Yet the XT-6, XT-4, and XT Whisper \u2014 all designed over a decade ago for trail runners \u2014 have now also become the favorite footwear of city dwellers, celebrities, and designers. <\/p>\n
Mellin explains how it all started: \u201cSomeone from the Broken Arm [a concept store based in Paris] called me and said: \u2018All of these kids in Paris are wearing their dad\u2019s old XT-6s. It\u2019s becoming a fashion trend, and I was thinking that if you recreate them, we\u2019ll bring them into the store,\u2019 and that is how it started.\u201d The brand saw an opportunity and adapted, without changing lanes or compromising its reason for being. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis wasn\u2019t Salomon making fashion a strategy. It was kids adopting our styles for urban culture,\u201d he says, emphasizing a spontaneous integration into the fashion space. \u201cSince then, that\u2019s essentially been the formula: we take historic styles that were built for the UTMB [Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, a mountain ultramarathon race] or trail running races around the world and we revisit them. We don\u2019t change the technology. We don\u2019t change anything. They\u2019re still trail running shoes that have been slightly revisited for culture\u201d.<\/p>\n
Given the size of the lifestyle market, the temptation to pivot more intentionally toward fashion would be understandable. \u201cThe running footwear industry is $27 billion globally, while the market for fashion footwear is more than $100 billion, so it\u2019 very easy for a brand to want to go for a bigger addressable market,\u201d explains Mellin. Many competitors have done so over the years, often losing sight of their heritage and hurting their reputation.<\/p>\n
Instead, Mellin\u2019s focus is on authenticity. Since his arrival, the company has embraced its lifestyle appeal, leading to a structural divide between performance and sportstyle, without one side ever dominating the other. \u201cOur brand strategy is always 50\/50: we equally fund our performance and sportstyle marketing. The cadence of communication is equal so that we don\u2019t become asymmetric to one side of the business or the other,\u201d he tells us. This balance has strengthened brand equity across two very different worlds that may, however, not be so distinct.<\/p>\n
When Performance Meets Culture: Creating Footwear For Hybrid Lifestyles<\/p>\n
Embracing this evolution led Salomon to realize customers don\u2019t fit a single box. Avid hikers can spend as much time climbing mountains as they do exploring art galleries, the same way individuals choosing city life can also love the outdoors. The hybrid nature of today\u2019s consumers was actually a white space Mellin and his team identified and decided to address, resulting in Salomon\u2019s first gravel shoe. \u201cWe saw a white space opportunity between road and trail, which was to bring individuals from an urban environment into nature but not necessarily on a knife-edge ridge,\u201d says Mellin. The idea was to design a shoe that resonated with people wanting to get out into nature in an accessible, less technical way.<\/p>\n
Cristelle Robert, senior director of performance soft goods, echoes the opportunity they identified: \u201cWe needed a solution for the city and gravel became our gateway because it is hybrid, diverse, and answers a consumer need looking for something unique that fits how diverse their lifestyle is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Creating the gravel shoe didn\u2019t just fill a market gap: it brought a new dimension to the company. \u201cI was looking at this commercial opportunity through the lens of gravel, but I was also looking at gravel as a cultural reawakening of Salomon, and it worked extremely well,\u201d Mellin admits. Through this approach, Salomon reignited the values of innovation and bravery the brand was founded upon. It elevated its commitment to sportsmanship and the outdoors into a cultural movement, both internally and externally. Employees became united by a sense of purpose and culture made possible through a clear vision, something many brands either fail to define or lose over time. <\/p>\n
Combining style and performance for every occasion, from multi-day treks to city runs or fashion shows.<\/p>\n
Salomon<\/p>\n
At the same time, Salomon embraced the cultural shift that turned running into a social connector. The trend accelerated in the past five years, with what was once an individual sport becoming a collective experience. Strava \u2014 the $2 billion<\/a> fitness app turned social network \u2014 now connects 135 million<\/a> runners and hikers, with run clubs representing nearly 40% of its global groups. Caf\u00e9s and brands are launching their own running clubs to foster engagement, with members sharing a run and coffee while adopting the runner\u2019s aesthetic as part of urban life. In this context, sports footwear found itself at the center of new venues, with the line between running and culture continuing to blur.<\/p>\n The Salomon customer embodies this duality. \u201cThe overlap between our performance and sportstyle consumer profile is 76%,\u201d shares Mellin, highlighting just how well Salomon is speaking to different needs and occasions. \u201cWe understand that the consumer is fluid. And they will go back and forth, depending on what they need for the moment, whether it\u2019s athletic pursuit or going to a fancy dinner.\u201d In response, Salomon designs footwear for both forest climbs and city occasions with the same focus on comfort and technicality, a balance that might just explain the brand\u2019s ongoing success.<\/p>\n \u201cThe secret sauce of Salomon is that we have always kept our authenticity. In a brand world, authenticity is the most important thing for me to protect, which is why I make sure that we\u2019ll always have performance at the start of everything we create.\u201d The Road Ahead <\/p>\n When asked how Salomon will navigate continuous growth and competition, Mellin\u2019s answer is clear: consistency. The brand\u2019s positioning, product line, and visual expression remain the same across regions. Depending on location, certain stores lean more toward performance or sportstyle, but the overall universe is consistent.<\/p>\n Salomon’s new stores in Los Angeles, Shanghai and Chicago<\/p>\n Salomon<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to maintain consistency: coupled with strong brand discipline, that\u2019s how you create lasting impact,\u201d reaffirms Mellin. So far, this strategy is working. Last year, Salomon reached $1 billion in sales \u2014 still a small share of the $180 billion global footwear market, but a clear sign of momentum and headroom to grow. The brand continues to expand significantly in Asia, open new stores globally, and launch collaborations with designers like MM6 Maison Margiela, while pursuing innovation with new footwear expected in 2026.<\/p>\n Through it all, sportsmanship remains the driving force of the brand. Next year, Salomon will serve as a premium sponsor of the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, providing outfits for all volunteers. The partnership nods to its alpine origins and reaffirms the values that defined the brand from the start: sports performance, family spirit, and authenticity. <\/p>\n As Salomon looks ahead, its challenge won\u2019t be to reinvent itself again, but to maintain this level of consistency across the worlds it now inhabits, from mountaintops to city pavements. For Scott Mellin, the ambition is clear: to safeguard this pursuit of excellence while becoming a top-five footwear brand.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that twenty years from now, people think of Salomon as their favorite footwear brand.\u201d A wish that may not be so far off. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Salomon’s spring 2025 campaign, led by DDB Paris. 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