Michelin, the French rubber tyre company that is well known for its innovative solutions, has unveiled a collaboration with Under Armour. It has developed performance soles for new models of trail running and fast hiking shoes that UA plans to bring to the market in 2016
At the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen last month, Salewa announced that was coming out with two types of innovative outsoles for loose and hard grounds, developed for the first time in partnership with Michelin. Besides outdoor shoes, Oberalp, parent company of Salewa, Dynafit, Wild Country and other brands, wants to cooperate with Michelin on other “systems” and technical solutions that may be applied to backpacks, ski poles and other products.
UA's and Oberalp's contracts are actually with JV International, a big new company that has been handling all the applications of Michelin technology outside the automotive and motorcycling sector since early last year. Michelin already has a license for tennis and badminton shoes with Babolat, the leading French supplier of tennis and badminton shoes. It also has a license with Northwave for snowboarding and cycling shoes.
JV, which is run by a former top manager of Vibram, Ambrogio Merlo, is working on new projects in the areas of basketball, golf, safety footwear and others. It is also developing a new system to measure the grip of any soles.
