Salomon Kicks Off the Winter Games With Immersive Experience — And Ice-Cool Adaptive Project
MILAN — Fresh off the appointment of Heikki Salonen as its first creative director, Salomon is continuing to build momentum by maximizing its visibility during the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Premium partner of the organizing committee of the Winter Games, the brand staged an immersive experience on Friday in the lead-up to the sports event’s opening ceremony.
Held at the Base location in the Tortona design district, the showcase dubbed “Shaping New Futures: A Salomon Experience” intended to spotlight the French brand’s pioneering spirit displaying high performance styles, some of its most iconic designs and an innovative adaptive project for para-athletes.
Salomon’s Gravel hybrid running shoe showcased at “Shaping New Futures: A Salomon Experience.”
Laurent Gia/Courtesy of Salomon
“Salomon is entering a new era,” said the company’s global chief brand officer Scott Mellin. “This moment marks not only our first official Olympic Games partnership, but also a new way of expressing who we are: an innovation brand, led by purpose, and prepared to shape the future of sport and culture.”
In particular, the adaptive project stood out for embodying the Annecy-based brand’s values. An expression of industrial design and access, the inclusive program quietly started more than four years ago with the development of the Hopper running prosthetic created in collaboration with Jérôme Bernard, Hopper and Airbus. Ever since, the project has evolved to involve a full ecosystem of athletes and designers, all working together to create adaptive equipment for mountain sports and developing prosthetic solutions for skiing, ski touring and snowboarding.
Salomon’s adaptive project showcased at “Shaping New Futures: A Salomon Experience.”
Laurent Gia/Courtesy of Salomon
The Salomon Para-Team’s feedback was instrumental in helping to conceive designs — opening up opportunities for amputees and enable new possibilities for movement and competition, as well as offer alternatives of specific gears at more competitive price points.
Another corner spotlighted items of the S/Lab Equipe collection, representing Salomon’s pinnacle of winter sports performance and designed to meet the demands across biathlon, snowboard and alpine disciplines.
The S/Lab Equipe collection showcased at “Shaping New Futures: A Salomon Experience.”
Laurent Gia/Courtesy of Salomon
Rendered in the brand’s signature competition blue color, the high performance styles flanked the S/Lab Phantasm 3 running design, the first fully aero-optimized running shoe co-developed with aerodynamics experts Swiss Side. Tuned in a wind tunnel, its sleek design claims to slice through air resistance, cutting up to 18 seconds off an elite-paced marathon.
Elsewhere, the Gravel Running hybrid running shoe was studied for off-road explorations and mixed terrains, while the Sportstyle line arrayed emblematic designs and collaborations proving how Salomon transcended sports and performance to resonate also with a fashion audience.
A Salomon x MM6 Maison Margiela style showcased at “Shaping New Futures: A Salomon Experience.”
Laurent Gia/Courtesy of Salomon
The company looks to further blur such lines with the appointment of Salonen, who joined the outdoor specialist after a 12-year tenure as creative head at MM6 Maison Margiela. The brand also recently hired studio director Laura Herbst, who worked alongside the Finnish designer for over a decade and whose track record includes MM6, Céline and Maison Margiela. As reported, their arrival dovetails with the departure of Mellin, who is exiting on April 1 and who led projects around the Winter Games.
For its first brand activation as premium partner of the global sports event, Salomon has added food to the fashion and sports equation, as it tied up with fashion go-to creative culinary studio We Are Ona and chef Michele De Liguoro for the immersive experience, which included a striking, sculptural mirrored ramp table symbolizing speed and elevation.
The “Shaping New Futures: A Salomon Experience” set curated by We Are Ona.
Laurent Gia/Courtesy of Salomon
In its quest to expand its scope and tap into the cultural moment of the city, the brand also designed the Olympic and Paralympic uniforms for the 18,000 volunteers and the workforce members involved in the event. These will add to the white tracksuit Salomon designed for the torchbearers and that received global attention in the past few months, partially thanks to prominent names including Snoop Dogg, Enhypen’s Sunghoon and “Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie.
