Amer Sports sees Salomon’s sneaker line as its way to younger female consumers. A capsule with US activewear brand FP Movement opens a new channel for Sportstyle, which is home to both models and generates about 40 percent of Salomon sales.
Salomon is drawing more women into its direct-to-consumer (DTC) business: they now account for around 45 percent of buyers, up from roughly 35 percent two years ago, according to figures the brand shared with investors last month.
That shift gives its latest collaboration with FP Movement, the activewear label of US women’s fashion brand Free People, a commercial significance beyond the size of the drop. Launched Oct. 1, the limited capsule recasts two of Salomon’s lead sneaker franchises in dip-dyed gradient colorways.
The capsule reworks the XT-6, priced at $185 (€165), in a fade of pink, ivory and mint picked out with green. The XT-Whisper, at $145 (€129), comes in coral and peach tones broken by purple and blue. Both are sold online through FP Movement and in selected stores of both brands.
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It is the first exclusive colorway project between the two brands, and the campaign imagery is built around a 12-by-10-foot canvas that Brooklyn painter Claire Buckley produced for FP Movement.
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The investor day numbers behind the capsule
At Amer Sports’ Salomon-focused Investor Day in Annecy on Sept. 17, management put figures on a shift it had described already, in more general terms, on previous earnings calls. Valérie Loh, Senior Vice President Brand & Marketing, and Bertrand Gachon, General Manager EMEA, gave the following data on Salomon’s customer base:
● Women in the global DTC base: around 45 percent, up from about 35 percent in two years
● DTC customers under 35: around 60 percent, up from 35 percent
● European customer base: now split evenly between men and women, at a brand Gachon described as formerly male-dominated
● Gravelanza, Salomon’s gravel running festival, June edition in Paris: more than 3,000 runners, 40 percent of them women.
In Annecy, Amer Sports Chief Executive James Zheng called Sportstyle, the sneaker line that carries the XT-6 and XT-Whisper, “a weapon to unlock the big potential” with younger female consumers.
Sportstyle is Salomon’s outreach tool
Sportstyle now represents about 40 percent of Salomon’s sales and is close to a €1 billion business, up from tens of millions of euros in 2021, according to Kristof Cavazzana, Vice President Product and Experience. Eight in 10 Sportstyle buyers had never bought from Salomon before. The brand expects revenue of more than $2.5 billion (€2.2bn) this year and aims for $3 billion (€2.7bn) by 2028.
The XT-Whisper line is the champion of the strategy. Cavazzana said it went from zero to almost 1 million pairs in 18 months, helped by a collaboration with New York designer Sandy Liang that he said targeted more women. The FP Movement capsule follows the same pattern: limited runs with partners that reach a specific community the brand does not yet own.
Winning with colors
The XT-6 and the XT-Whisper are both sold in unisex sizing. Salomon seems to focus on winning women through color, collaborators and retail channels rather than through footwear built on women’s lasts.
Its sister brand shows how far the other route can go. Amer Sports said Arc’teryx is redesigning core models specifically for women while widening its feminine color palettes, and that new styles and seasonal colors drove more than 60 percent of Arc’teryx women’s sales in the second quarter. Amer Sports expected women to bring in about a quarter of Arc’teryx revenue in 2025 and targets 30 percent by 2030.
Why FP Movement, and why the US
The partner gives Salomon the further visibility it has been looking for in North America. FP Movement grew revenue 26 percent, reaching $131.7 million (€117.6m), in the second quarter of Urban Outfitters’ fiscal 2027, ended July 31, with wholesale up 37 percent. It runs 97 standalone stores, plans 21 openings this fiscal year and is preparing a European expansion that will start with wholesale and e-commerce.
Salomon has spent the year adding US sneaker doors. SGIE reported in July that Foot Locker began stocking the brandin select US stores. In Europe, sneaker chains such as JD Sports, Foot Locker and Snipes bring Salomon a younger, more urban and often more female audience, according to Gachon, who heads the brand’s EMEA region.
It also adds to Salomon’s cultural casting, which experienced its highest moment in May with the appointment of Jisoo as its first global ambassador. Since Oct. 1 she has fronted In the Open, Salomon’s Fall/Winter 2026 campaign and her first in the role, with an XT capsule that went on sale Oct. 7.
The SGIE take
Amer Sports’ next earnings call is expected in the second half of November and will deliver more proof points.
However, this expansion into Sportstyle and the women’s market also brings some challenges, starting with greater exposure to shifting taste than Salomon faced as a winter sports and trail running specialist. Colorways and collaborations brought women in. Keeping them may take product designed for them.
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