Sorry, @yaboyscottjurek, but the Salomon and Ironman partnership is awesome

What You Need To Know

Salomon is all-in on road racing

Here it is: Salomon has announced a premier partnership with Ironman that runs from 2027 through 2031. That partnership will cover everything from footwear to apparel to bags, and it’s capped off by Salomon becoming the title sponsor of the Ironman World Championship for the duration of the partnership. It’s a big deal, but maybe a slightly confusing one for some. Isn’t this Salomon, the famed trail brand that hails from the mountains of France? Yes, it is, and yes, there have been memes.

The thing is, though, this is exactly the type of put-up-or-shut-up partnership that I think Salomon needed. I ran the Paris Marathon in the S/Lab Phantasm 3 earlier this year, and I can tell that Salomon is on the right track when it comes to road racing. Sure, it has a mountain to climb to draw people away from their beloved Metaspeeds and Alpha/Vaporflies, but nothing makes you wake up and lock in like 140.6 (or 70.3) miles of running, swimming, and biking.

No, maybe watching Salomon invest in road racing isn’t exactly what fans of the Ultra Glide, the Genesis, or Courtney Dauwalter (who dropped a 2:38 at CIM, a road marathon, last December) might have expected, but what’s that saying? A rising tide lifts all ships? Eyes on Salomon’s road goals mean eyes on Salomon’s trail goals, which can only spur the company to new heights.

Besides, if you’ve run in any of Salomon’s apparel, especially the Sense Aero shorts, you’ll know that Ironman participants are in for a treat. Salomon’s Shakeout Core shirt, which will probably become the go-to race premium, is also excellent and a step up from the tech tee I received as a race premium earlier this summer at a local 70.3.

Where have we seen this story before?

Much of my excitement up to this point is because I’m already a fan of Salomon’s offerings. I like the ambition of a racing shoe designed using a wind tunnel, and I’ll reach for my Salomon gear whenever I can (you know, when it’s clean). That’s all good for me. The reason you should care, though, is because Salomon is taking the reins from Hoka after more than eight years. Do you remember what Hoka was putting out eight years ago? Back when it still had One One in its name?

I’ll refresh you. Hoka announced its big partnership with Ironman back in 2018. In that same year, it launched the Clifton 5, the Bondi 6, and the original Mach. They were good shoes, but certainly not race-ready, Ironman-winning ones. The Clifton has barely changed since then, but the Mach has exploded in popularity, spawning spinoffs and reaching its seventh generation.

Since then, Hoka has embraced race day shoes, too. While its 2018 slate focused largely on daily trainers (which might have been marathon shoes at the time), its partnership with Ironman helped to shape and reshape the Rocket X line into a title-winning, world record-holding shoe, and Salomon could do the same. The needs of an Ironman athlete are slightly different from those of a pure marathon runner, which might influence how the next generations of the S/Lab Phantasm are built.

If Salomon can turn the increased attention into leaps in development, it just might run laps around the Instagram accounts that want it to stick to the trails.