Why Am I Seeing These Salomon Hiking Shoes Everywhere … Except Hiking Trails?

Two pictures of the Salomon XT-6 shoes; one of somebody's feet wearing them and one of a single shoe in front of a blue background.

Rarely, if ever, do I really think of style when I’m shopping for athletic shoes. For me, they’re among the few entirely utilitarian items in my wardrobe — worn unceremoniously, beaten into the ground, mucked up beyond recognition, and then finally thrown away.

And then I saw Salomon’s XT-6 trail shoes everywhere, worn in ways I never could have imagined.

A nearly 80-year-old company, Salomon has long been a trusted name in the world of outdoor apparel. Its Quest 4 Gore-Tex Hiking Boots were even crowned the best boot in our guide to hiking boots, and Salomon has made footwear for athletes summiting Everest.

But for most of that time, the brand was a relatively niche choice among outdoor enthusiasts, never crossing over into the realm of everyday style, as Patagonia and Nike had.

Then Salomon’s XT-6 hiking shoe collided with the world of 2020s streetwear. Through a series of designer collaborations, what was originally designed as an ultramarathon trail shoe in 2013 became a city wardrobe staple, and it was relaunched in 2018 under Salomon’s new fashion-forward line Sportstyle.

Over the next few years, Salomon took off. In 2023, Rihanna wore Salomons during her Super Bowl Halftime Show. They sat on the shelves of the stylish Parisian boutique The Broken Arm. And their status was canonized and reported on year after year in outlets like GQ, Esquire, and WWD. Now, you can hardly walk through any major city across the globe without spotting at least half a dozen pairs of Salomons on a given day.

While it’s not unusual for a shoe style, or even a brand, to suddenly become chic (and trail shoes as a broader category have become more popular as streetwear staples over the past few years), it’s rare for a specific model from a specific brand and season to maintain such a hold for so long.

Can any shoes live up to such hype? Can style and performance really coexist so neatly in a single shoe? To find out, I walked 75 miles of city streets and hiking paths, I tried them with everything from jeans to running shorts, and I spoke with three Wirecutter staffers about their XT-6 experiences.



from Wirecutter: Reviews for the Real World https://ift.tt/bvAeTn6
via IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Molly Baz Restocked Her Kitchen After the LA Fires

Image
Shortly after the devastating Los Angeles fires of January 2025, cookbook author and recipe developer Molly Baz shared a note with her followers on Instagram. “You can take away the physical kitchen, but you can’t take away the spirit of the cook,” she wrote. The Altadena house that she’d shared with her husband, Ben Willett; her baby; and her miniature dachshund, Tuna, had just burned to the ground. “If there’s anything that will bring me some semblance of normalcy, comfort, and routine right now, it will be cooking. So that’s what I’ll do.” Still, “I felt so out of sorts,” says Baz. She recalls thinking, “Where is my pinch pot with my salt? I cannot cook, because I do not have the things that make me feel comfortable and like myself in my kitchen.” All the cookware, pantry staples, appliances, and beloved glassware and dinnerware that Baz had collected through her years of working in food were gone, and Baz suddenly faced the question of what had really mattered to her and made a ...
Read more

The 30 Most Popular Prime Day Deals, According to Wirecutter Readers

Image
Amazon’s summer Prime Day — which is now a four-day event rather than the usual two days — is well underway, and we’ve been working hard to surface the best deals for our readers. We’ve sorted through thousands of on-sale items to pinpoint truly excellent discounts on the things our experts have found are worth your time and money. Among the 500-plus deals we’ve posted so far —less than 1% of every discount we’ve reviewed — some have grabbed the attention of our readers more than others. Here are the 30 Prime Day deals that our readers have loved the most, including soft sateen sheets, a luxe leather tote, an investment-worthy blender, and more. from Wirecutter: Reviews for the Real World https://ift.tt/tDSahdQ via IFTTT
Read more

The Nugget Is the ‘Original Play Couch.’ Costco’s Version May Be Better.

Image
If you’re a parent of a child under 10, you’ve probably heard of The Nugget, the beloved play sofa that launched a thousand (well, at least 20) competitors. I’ve only recently discovered the category; but now that my eyes are open, play-cushion sets seem to be everywhere — even at Costco. I’m inherently skeptical of any product that claims to solve a need that I’m unaware of having. But, last summer, a junk collector hauled away our sofa, whose base had finally broken clean in half from eight years of my son’s intense, anime-inspired dance-jumping. It turns out we could’ve used a play sofa — and saved our couch  (as well as our cushions). The Nugget , the first play couch to widely popularize the concept, experienced viral popularity during pandemic lockdowns in 2020. It is also a Wirecutter favorite . Its modular design is simple: There are two long, hinged cushions and two triangular bolsters, all with removable, washable covers. And while The Nugget is arguably the most popu...
Read more