Salomon did not start on a track. It started in a small workshop in the French Alps. In 1947, in Annecy, Georges Salomon and his family began making steel edges for skis. Nobody was thinking about fashion; the aim was kit that did not fail on a mountain.
1947–1990: the mountain engineers
Long before any of it reached the pavement, Salomon ruled ski equipment. For forty-odd years there was one aim: to win winter sports through engineering.
The start. The Annecy workshop sharpened saws and made steel ski edges. That detail matters: Salomon began as metalworkers and engineers, not designers, and precision with metal is where the company’s instincts still come from.
Bindings. Skiers were then strapped to their skis with leather, and a fall often meant a broken leg. Salomon went at that problem directly, and in the 1960s produced a binding that released the boot under twist. It made the company’s name worldwide: within a few years they had sold over a million pairs and led the category.
Ski boots (1979). Having mastered the join between boot and ski, the boot itself was the obvious next step. The SX series opened at the back – a hinge at the heel instead of buckles down the front. Getting into them became trivial, and through the 1980s recreational skiers loved them for it.
Cross-country (1985). Salomon built their own boot-and-binding system, SNS, took on the dominant Norwegian NNN standard head-on, and won a serious share of it.
Skis (1990). The last piece. From then on Salomon sold the whole system rather than parts of it.
1992: from snow to mud
The 1990s produced a new sport: trail running. Runners wanted something lighter than a walking boot and steadier than a road shoe. Salomon brought forty-five years of biomechanics and bad weather to bear and made their first shoe.
That line produced the Speedcross, with deep, widely spaced lugs made to bite into mud, wet roots and slick rock – conditions a British winter supplies free of charge. The way it looks was never a styling decision; it is what the function made.
Ideas that came from irritation
- Quicklace. Nobody wants to tie wet, muddy laces with frozen fingers. A thin, very strong cord pulls tight in one movement, and the slack tucks into a pocket on the tongue.
- Contagrip. There is no such thing as universal grip, so the sole mixes compounds – harder where it has to last, softer and stickier where it has to hold on wet rock.
- SensiFit. Internal wings that wrap the foot and hold it still on a steep descent, which is where shoes usually lose you.
The turn nobody planned: fashion
The last few years produced gorpcore: technical mountain clothing worn every day in cities. Models like the XT-6, built for people running a hundred miles over mountains, turned up on Paris runways and on the streets of east London.
Salomon did not go looking for this. What fashion picked up on was precisely the authenticity – a design that came out of function and nothing else.
Alongside it the brand keeps the S/LAB line, built with its best athletes and with nothing compromised for price. What works there filters down into the shoes the rest of us buy.
Questions I get asked about Salomon
Can I run on the road in Speedcross?
You can, and you will regret both the wear and the feel. The lugs are deep and widely spaced so that mud clears out of them; on tarmac there is nothing for them to bite into, so you are running on a handful of rubber points. They wear down quickly and they feel unsteady. Keep them for the ground they were drawn for.
Is Quicklace actually better than laces?
For cold, wet hands, yes – one pull and it is done, and the slack goes into a pocket on the tongue instead of flapping. The trade-off is that you cannot vary the tension along the foot the way you can with a normal lace, so if you need it looser over the instep and tighter at the ankle, this is not the system for you. Watch the cord where it runs through the lock; that is where it goes first.
Is the fashion attention changing the shoes?
Not so far, and that is rather the joke. What the runways picked up on is a design that came entirely out of function – it was never styled to be looked at. Meanwhile the S/LAB line is still built with the athletes and with nothing compromised for price, and what works there comes down into the shoes the rest of us buy. The day that stops being true is the day to worry.