In 1947, in Annecy, France, François Salomon, his wife Jeanne, and their son Georges opened a workshop filing ski edges by hand. Georges bet the family shop on a heretical idea, that bindings should release in a fall, and the cable bindings and release systems that followed rewired ski safety for everyone. Eighty years later the same company’s trail shoes dominate mountain running startlines worldwide. The through-line is the same obsession: the point where a human connects to a mountain.
The short version: Salomon, founded 1947 in the French Alps and part of Amer Sports (with North American mountain sports operations based in Ogden, Utah), is the world’s trail running reference and a full-spectrum mountain brand across skiing, hiking, and fast-and-light everything. Buy it for trail shoes, ski boots and bindings, and running vests. Its cushioned road shoes and fashion collabs are fine, but the mountains are the mandate.
Where Salomon came from
From edges to bindings to boots, Salomon systematically re-engineered skiing, then applied the same integrated thinking to feet in summer: the sticky Contagrip rubber, Quicklace, and the Speedcross and S/Lab lines that made “trail running shoe” a serious category. Athletes like Kilian Jornet turned S/Lab into a skunkworks with a fan base. Ownership sits with Amer Sports alongside Arc’teryx, Anta-led since 2019 and NYSE-listed since 2024.
What they actually make well
Trail running footwear at every distance and surface, from Speedcross mud shoes to Genie-level race flats; running vests that fit like clothing; alpine and backcountry ski boots and bindings that remain benchmark equipment; approach-fast hiking shoes like the X Ultra that quietly outsell everything at trailheads.
Built to last?
Trail shoes are consumables and Salomon’s wear like everyone’s, but the brand has pushed recyclability harder than most, including shoes designed for disassembly, and its boots and bindings serve long lives with parts support. Repairability in footwear remains the industry’s honest weak spot, Salomon included.
The causes they actually fund
Salomon’s giving flows through trail communities: race and trail-crew support, mountain safety education, and athlete-led environmental projects, with sustainability efforts concentrated in product engineering (recyclable footwear experiments) more than grantmaking. Its home US range gives locally in Utah’s trail scene.
Where this gear earns its place
Ogden is the American home ground, with the Ben Lomond Trail climbing 3,000 vertical feet practically from town, pure Salomon terrain. So are desert singletrack mornings in our Sonoran Desert guide and any line on the Trail Atlas you would rather run than walk.
The honest take
Sizing runs narrow and the fashion-sneaker wave (XT-6s at art openings) means some models sell out for reasons that have nothing to do with mountains. Altra and Hoka own the wide-and-cushioned crowd. But for precise, fast footwork on real terrain, Salomon is still the shoe the sport itself wears.
Three generations from filed steel edges to carbon plates, same mountains. More makers in Brands We Love. Last verified July 2026.