With the pace of the shoe business quickening by the year, it’s a special silhouette indeed that survives till its 10th anniversary and indicates not only the commercial success of a shoe, but also its cultural impact. Both of these things are apparent in ample measure with the much-celebrated Salomon XT-6 that today marks its decade of enthusiastic adoption with the Salomon XT-6 10 Years limited edition.
The XT-6 first came to market back in 2013, introduced into the S/Lab technical running range as a shoe purpose-built for the rigours of trail running and off-road ultra-marathons, before the design was expanded to include a lifestyle offering in 2018 to meet the growing demand for function-over-form gorp-core garments and footwear. The Salomon XT-6 10 Years is an ode to that original design by Benjamin Grenet with “PROTOTYPE” text across the outer heel cup speaking to the origins of the silhouette.
“During all the performance life of the shoe, there were only two colourways, one for the soft ground, one for the hard ground,” explained Benjamin Grenet about the new design.
“When we proposed this shoe in the Sportstyle range, everything was possible. You free the same design, you transform it and propose a new vision, to magnify it and propose it in a totally different way.”
The Salomon XT-6 10 Years edition is about as close to a faithful reissue as a shoe can get, boasting the same EVA midsole construction and Agile Chassis System, as well as the proprietary Mud Contagrip outsole designed to keep you upright and on your feet no matter the conditions. In addition to being designed to tackle the roughest terrain, much of the success of the shoes in a lifestyle context is their remarkable comfort with popular Quicklace technology making them easy to get on and off as an everyday shoe.
The Salomon XT-6 10 Years edition will be sold online from Salomon directly or from the Up There Store with the shoes set to become available on March 28th. The RRP? $340.
