Why Salomon Is Betting on Gravel As the Next Big Thing in Running

Author

Hannah Singleton

Photographer

Salomon

The French brand is carving out a culture-first category for runners who move between city streets, forest paths, and everything in between

Published: 12-02-2025

Annecy is a town in France where the Alps meet the valley. It's a place where a casual run can cross a variety of terrain. On a recent trip, starting at the Salomon Design Center, I ran along tree-lined bridle paths through the woods, which fed into paved city streets, and eventually, popped out into a park along the edge of Lake Annecy. It’s easy to see why Salomon calls this place home: runners and cyclists can cruise nearly a marathon’s distance along water, and then head up a steep trail into the surrounding peaks. With such a diversity of terrain at their disposal, it’s also no wonder the brand is putting a lot of effort behind "gravel" running shoes: a new designation of shoes that have the plush midsole of a road running shoe, but the grippy lugs of a trail runner.

Running brands, including Salomon, have been selling road-to-trail shoes for years—in the form of a beefed-up outsole slapped onto a road shoe, or a slightly less aggressive trail shoe. Nike has the Pegasus Trail, On has their Cloudsurfer Trail, Hoka has the Challenger. But unlike the others, Salomon is set on turning this type of footwear into a new subgenre of running gear, carving out an intentional niche designed around an emerging culture of urban runners who hop between surfaces and don’t want their gear limiting their route. Craft, another European brand, also distinguishes its gravel models from its trail line.

In the cycling world, gravel riding, a broad category consisting of bikes, gear, and riding styles that exist on a spectrum between road biking and mountain biking, has already established a definition for the category—and that there’s an appetite for this middle ground. Salomon is vying to be known as the brand that outlines the nature of that space in running.

Running through Annecy | Courtesy Salomon

As running becomes increasingly popular we're seeing the perfect environment for further fragmentation and opportunity for niche subcultures to find footing. Brands like Satisfy and Tracksmith have built strong businesses by anchoring to (opposing) aesthetic sides of the running market, so it tracks that Salomon would want to take a similar route in staking their claim on a subcategory of surface, too.

Salomon has always been rooted in mountain culture, but the company today is perhaps best known among mainstream consumers for its sportstyle category, which blends technical performance with fashion-forward aesthetics. The XT-6 was relaunched as a lifestyle shoe in 2018 and quickly jumped from niche trail runner to fashion staple, helped along by high-fashion collaborations and celebrities like Rihanna stepping out in it. In 2019, GQ named it Sneaker of the Year. And in the handful of years since, the style has become ubiquitous among style-attuned city dwellers—whether they identify as “outdoorsy” or not.

"The gravel consumer is a sports person but is also someone very creative and inspired by culture."

Photo courtesy Salomon

When Salomon started from scratch to design their new gravel collection, they knew they couldn’t just create another road-to-trail shoe. They needed to take cues from their sportstyle arm to appeal to a new, broader range of consumers who foster a dynamic approach to running and the outdoors (and who don’t want to look like they just got back from a run when they're laced up).

“Gorpcore made it so outdoor shoes are now worn on a daily basis, and most of the people wearing those products live in the cities,” says Gatien Airiau, global product marketing manager at Salomon. “Gravel was this unique opportunity to bring the outdoor mindset to the cities. Runners want to discover the outdoors at your doorstep.”

Much of the inspiration for Salomon’s gravel running collection came from one of their pro athletes, Christian Meier, a former Tour du France cyclist-turned-ultrarunner. He moved to Girona, Spain—a gravel cycling hub—and opened a running store called Overland Running Provisions, which created a thriving community of runners who would meet for group runs then head to coffee shops afterward. The Salomon design team spent three days with the Overland Running crew, running through the rolling gravel lanes around Girona and talking to runners whose identities didn’t mirror the traditional mountain runner archetype.

A gravel shoe sole unit | Courtesy Salomon

“It’s culture, art, fashion, music that inspires them,” Marthe Magis, product line manager of running apparel at Salomon, said during a presentation at the brand’s showroom in Annecy. “That’s what we realized very deeply when we went there to visit. The gravel consumer is a sports person but is also someone very creative and inspired by culture.”

For Salomon's gravel collection, athlete feedback shaped the product direction. “They all wanted to keep the comfort and ride of their current shoes, because they were all using ‘normal’ road running shoes, but they needed a little bit more,” says Paul Veillerette, footwear designer at Salomon. “When the terrain was gravel or uneven, they wanted a little bit more traction, a little more grip. But on the other side, a trail shoe was a little too much for them. Too much grip, too much technical, too much precision.”

So, the team began prototyping a hybrid. “You have the engine of a road running shoe—the foam,” says Airiau. “But we added a more durable, grippier outsole and streamlined the upper so it feels secure on uneven terrain.” The design team also took cues from gravel cycling tires for the tread, using smaller, directional lugs that bite on loose terrain without feeling draggy on pavement.

Salomon's installation at Paris Art Basel | Courtesy Salomon

"Gravel is this unique opportunity to bring the outdoor mindset to the cities. Runners want to discover the outdoors at their doorstep.”

Salomon already has two gravel models—the Aero Blaze 3 GRVL and Aero Glide 3 GRVL—but the upcoming spring/summer 2026 collection pushes the concept further, leaning more fashion-forward and expanding the category with apparel and a running vest.

“What’s cool is that you have these shoes that you can go do a run in and then grab a drink after and you don’t look like an idiot,” says Airiau. He uses them for travel, too. “If I don't have that much space, then for sure, I'm going to bring my gravel shoes. It's not too performance-driven, it's not too sportstyle. It ticks all the boxes.” The new apparel follows the same logic with fit, color, and materials that can cross seamlessly between workouts and daily life. At a showroom in Paris for the spring/summer collection, all of Salomon’s employees styled pieces of the collection into their own fits: a mauve bandana around a neck, a subtly-patterned technical tee under a brown cardigan, and the upcoming white and brown Aero Blaze on all of their feet. Even in the City of Lights, none of it felt out of place.

While trail running has long felt tied to outdoor-obsessed communities, gravel running is Salomon’s argument that the outdoors can exist anywhere people are willing to notice it. The broader ambition goes beyond products, too. Salomon has started showing up in creative spaces—most recently with a small art installation and community runs at Paris Art Basel—signaling how intentionally the brand is positioning gravel as a part of general culture, not just the performance running world. “We have more and more people entering the world of running, and what is interesting is most of these people didn't start with athletics,” says Airiau. “We have to find ways to make running more attractive and gravel—through the community, through the culture, and running as a healthy lifestyle—I think it's perfect.”

Hoka is another brand redefining running—here's how the company stays true to its trail running roots.