Salomon is greatest recognized for his or her path trainers. Ever been to a path race? Most athletes shall be sporting Salomons. It’s not for nothing they’re a serious participant in that universe. During the last couple of years, Salomon is being seen in a distinctly totally different surroundings: town. From Montreal’s hip Mile Finish to the runways at Paris Trend Week, you see them hitting the pavement all over the place.
Throughout our go to to Salomon HQ in Annecy, France, we had the pleasure to speak about this phenomenon with Jean-Philippe Lalonde, the Life-style Footwear Program Supervisor.
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Altitude Sports activities: How had been you approached by Salomon?
Jean-Philippe Lalonde: I used to be in the precise place on the proper time. On a flight to Vancouver, somebody from the Salomon staff spoke with me. As soon as on the lodge, I went right down to the foyer to eat and Julien Traverse (former supervisor of Salomon’s Life-style division) greeted me. He thought I used to be another person, however regardless of that, we had an awesome chat and frolicked. One factor led to a different, and he requested me to use for the Product Line Supervisor place in Salomon’s Life-style division. 4 months later, I’m right here in Annecy. Let’s say it was just a little bend in my life’s path.
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Altitude Sports activities: How did Salomon break into the Life-style Sneaker world?
Jean-Philippe Lalonde: Lets say the primary actual Life-style venture was the collaboration with The Damaged Arm (a Parisien trend boutique) in 2015. After a number of tries, they not solely obtained (the Snowcross) into the boutique but additionally obtained to know Julien Traverse, who was operating Salomon’s Life-style program then, regardless of the low profile of this system on the time. They created a Snowcross like they needed to, in an unique colourway. It was a giant hit. That’s once I grew to become conscious of Salomon on the earth of sneaker trend. The venture grew to become a high-impact one: Salomon had began one thing new. I began in October 2016, and we launched tasks with The Damaged Arm and Boris Bidjan. I hit the bottom operating and Salomon let me handle these tasks to the top.
Altitude Sports activities: The Black Version is the primary Salomon Life-style launch we’ve ever had at Altitude Sports activities. What’s the story behind the gathering?
Jean-Philippe Lalonde: The entire thing began with The Damaged Arm. We launched the primary unique Snowcross and it was successful. Then we rolled out the Black Version. All of the fashions are fascinating, they’re actually S/Lab footwear we redo in black. We didn’t actually have a exact technique at first, however these are very high-performance footwear that we had been going to re-issue for our fall 2018 assortment. The primary footwear within the assortment had been launched originally of June. What’s cool is that Black Version didn’t simply make some noise with most people, but additionally with creators and designers.
Salomon Black Version Assortment
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S/Lab Wings 8 Black LTD Store |
S/Lab Speedcross Black LTD Store |
S/Lab Sonic Black LTD Store |
Altitude Sports activities: Ralph Lauren wears Salomons, and there’s a GQ article about Salomon’s affect on the style world. We will really feel the momentum constructing. How have you ever dealt with the elevated publicity?
Jean-Philippe Lalonde: I’m going to reply you a bit in a different way. Once I began, my aim was to create the sneakers I needed to put on. It wasn’t the obvious factor at Salomon, as a result of there wasn’t something that basically grabbed me at first. I reached my aim fairly rapidly and had to consider one other one. So I made a decision on sneakers my buddies would wish to put on! I went for just a little extra of a business type in the long run.
What was actually nice was that Salmon’s administration was very open. They understood from the beginning this wasn’t a rush venture or in a single day success factor: fortunately, we had time to do issues proper. Slowly however certainly, we obtained our fundamentals proper and took time to curate the precise sellers. Some stylists began to get keen on our tasks and seen our fashions in all types of publications.
Rachael Rodgers, a prime stylist out of Berlin, grew to become a type of ambassador for us and commonly touts our footwear. Alec Leach, the style editor at Excessive Snobiety, can be a fan, and he wore Snowcross all final winter and in any respect the style weeks he was at, like Berlin and Paris. He actually created a following for the footwear. Boris having our footwear on the runway each season is a giant plus. There’s additionally the French designer Marine Serre, who received the LVMH prize for prime rising designer. She had our mesh footwear at her Fall 2018 present. And we all know that there are key gamers within the trend neighborhood carrying our footwear. In spite of everything, this, after we go to trend reveals, we see the patrons already carrying our merchandise!
Altitude Sports activities: How do you clarify this infatuation?
Jean-Philippe Lalonde: There’s an actual want for footwear that work nicely in every day life. We noticed that fashion-oriented footwear didn’t reply consolation or safety wants, for instance. Individuals need comfy footwear, and sneakers are what I name an accessible luxurious. You may change all the things about your look simply by altering your footwear. It’s change into the principle choice for city shoppers. There’s a requirement for a brand new type of product, directly trendy and outdoors-y, and for brand spanking new manufacturers. Salomon was not on the style world radar till just lately, however now we’re turning into one thing massive.
“We noticed that fashion-oriented footwear didn’t reply consolation or safety wants, for instance. Individuals need comfy footwear, and sneakers are what I name an accessible luxurious. You may change all the things about your look simply by altering your footwear. It’s change into the principle choice for city shoppers. There’s a requirement for a brand new type of product, directly trendy and outdoors-y, and for brand spanking new manufacturers.”
Altitude Sports activities: Are you able to speak in regards to the roles of your staff members?
Jean-Philippe Lalonde: I share my every day workload with my two-person staff, Ryan and Maëlle. Ryan is our footwear designer, he’s the one who makes my visions actuality. Maëlle is our important hyperlink within the chain. She’s the developer and communicates between Salomon right here in Annecy and our Asian factories. She’s additionally out staff organizer. With out her, all the things could be fairly chaotic, as Ryan and I are likely to work intuitively. Maëlle organizes us, steers us to secure harbor, and most significantly reminds us to stay to our schedules! We work in our micro-team, like a startup nestled inside a giant company.
Altitude Sports activities: And what does the long run maintain? The following steps?
Jean-Philippe Lalonde: Outside footwear in city settings is just not a passing fad. It’s one thing that’s establishing itself as everlasting, with its personal identification. Like basketball footwear a number of years in the past, which had been the massive factor. Then racing runners. Now, outside footwear and path runners are carving out their very own area of interest available in the market. I see a really promising future for this type of shoe! What’s good about Salomon is we’re not attempting to reinvent ourselves: that is already a part of our DNA. It’s genuine – we’re not attempting to create one thing that doesn’t correspond in any respect to Salomon.
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Unisex Snowcross ADV LTD Footwear Store |
Unisex S/LAB XT-6 Softground ADV LTD Footwear Store |
Unisex S/LAB XT-6 Softground ADV Footwear Store |
“Outside footwear in city settings is just not a passing fad. It’s one thing that’s establishing itself as everlasting, with its personal identification.”
Altitude Sports activities: Once we look forward, we see a few of your line is collaborations and a few is a part of your collections. What extra can we count on?
Jean-Philippe Lalonde: I’ll break up my reply into three elements. First, there’s what we name Salomon Superior, that are progressive fashions of our footwear. Then we have now collaborations with Boris and The Damaged Arm, so all the style collabs; and there’s one other line which is about sports activities collaborations, like what we did with Fulfill Operating and District Imaginative and prescient. For the Superior file, it’s one thing that’s going to develop. In the intervening time, we’re working quite a bit with our archives, however we wish to create new fashions on this class sooner or later. These shall be mountain climbing and path operating fashions. Once more, the thought is to maintain Salomon’s authenticity, however with a brand new interpretation.
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