I started trail running in 2016, and part of what made me fall in love with the sport was the old Salomon TV trail running Youtubes from Dean Leslie. What I loved at the time, and I notice even more today, is that most of them aren't about races. They're mostly just people running and having fun, stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuhHVJoFPeM&pp=ygUOc2Fsb21vbiBjYW55b24%3D
I find that more relatable and inspiring than somebody winning the Golden Trail series. I'm fat and slow, I don't win races, but I can go on an adventure with a friend like in that video. It's too bad Salomon seems to be moving away from that as a brand identity. Maybe it'll be better for them, who knows, but I loved that era of Salomon marketing and I miss it today.
Really great way to tie it up at the end Matt. I think Salomon is making a lot of assumptions about how many trail runners have even remote interest in this optimization-at-all-costs idea like we see in pro cycling. That approach didn’t draw any of us into the sport in the first place and it ignores most of the reasons we are here. Sort of disappointing to hear to be honest. While this high performance optimization requires plenty of lab-type work, it ignores the boots-on-the-ground community work that requires listening and participating alongside their customers. Honestly, including athletes in product development and then eating well are table stakes athlete relationship topics and not new business/brand strategy. The strategy insight here is that they’ve decided to hitch their wagon to this high performance horse and leave the others behind - or at least their messaging appears that way. The idea to do less but better also resonates. I agree with Corinne that the Olympic subculture would become a niche within a niche sort of like GTWS already is. We have seen it with climbing recently. My two cents, great work here as always!✌️
Pro-cycling is a very interesting example isn't it? Where Salomon is located, the UCI World Tour remains huge, while in North America it crashed out! From the Tour of California to the Coors Classic and many others, these all collapsed, replaced by gravel racing. Where beer is the preferred fluid replacement.
Agree, the team development side isn’t particularly new, only the intensity and cohesiveness of their assistance. For instance, I imagine each team has a nutritionist, physio and so on, but Salomon have Aitor as a central co-ordinator whose sole focus is performance through a data lens.
I’m sure they’ll continue community work, but I’m guessing this will suck up a lot of budget away from the usual approach.
Very interesting article and some good comments already. I'm not so sure what to think of it. On one hand I'm a performance-driven person, so I like this direction. On the other, I feel like this will lead to a lot of commercialization of the sport - prices will go up and people will be convinced that they need to spend more and more to get marginal gains, similar to how it is in cycling.
Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to this evolution of trail running!
Very interesting. I'm not sure if he's correct, but Scott Mellin is super smart, articulate, and progressive.
And your insights are exceptional; here's one of many quotable lines that caught my eye: "What begins as play inevitably becomes process; what starts as passion calcifies into structure."
Even if trail running makes it to the Olympics, as C & D-bo also said, that will be another limb of the tree, rather than replacing the tree.
Maybe the worst outcome is us media types will swerve over to reporting professional content, while most non-media runners don't give a shit! 😜
Oh i think thats the case right now! I don’t know how many runners care about the professional side, but if we’re doing % my guess is it will be less than 5%
I get the urge to shrink the team from an unwieldy 300 to a carefully curated/managed 40. But good luck in the years when the injury bug goes around the team at the same time as your tiny well of prospects don’t pan out. I hate to imagine a trail running circuit where Salomon is missing from podiums.
When is trail running going to take a note from the track and field / road running world and develop teams in single locations around premier coaches where they have all the keys to success?
Removing pizza and similar foodstuff from trail races (maybe just from the elites' fuelling plan?) does feel like gutting the experience. Product and athlete development are necessary components to a brand like this, and perhaps what Salomon also needs to consider is the stewardship aspect of trail running. The environment is so very much part of the interlocking system they're hoping to optimize and globalize -- I'd feel less apprehensive if I knew they were including trail stewardship and year-round care in their plans for the sport that they are hoping to revolutionize.
All this "fewer but better"-talk from Mellin, but if you look on their male ultra line-up?
You really start wondering, how this should "reshape" the sport, if you just have one world class runner (Blanchard) and a few old men (D'Haene, Sandes, Meier). Hoka and Terrex are miles ahead, when it comes to "roster planning" and getting the right athletes.
With no athletes, you wont shape anything and sell nothing in the end, when you just have one shot at the i.e. UTMB per year, while other brands bring 5-10 high profiled athletes.
Average age UTMB winner male past 14 years: 32,7 (only Pommeret >35 when winning)
Average age WSER winner male past 14 years: 32,5 (only Rob Krar >37 when winning)
With a drop rate of elite male athletes in the UTMB 2024 of roughly 60%, it's just simple math, that the team starting 5-7 elite athletes has better chances to win, that the team with 2-3 elite athletes.
I started trail running in 2016, and part of what made me fall in love with the sport was the old Salomon TV trail running Youtubes from Dean Leslie. What I loved at the time, and I notice even more today, is that most of them aren't about races. They're mostly just people running and having fun, stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuhHVJoFPeM&pp=ygUOc2Fsb21vbiBjYW55b24%3D
I find that more relatable and inspiring than somebody winning the Golden Trail series. I'm fat and slow, I don't win races, but I can go on an adventure with a friend like in that video. It's too bad Salomon seems to be moving away from that as a brand identity. Maybe it'll be better for them, who knows, but I loved that era of Salomon marketing and I miss it today.
You're in what he termed the 76% category, but it's my guess this is probably the 90+% of all runners category.
Really great way to tie it up at the end Matt. I think Salomon is making a lot of assumptions about how many trail runners have even remote interest in this optimization-at-all-costs idea like we see in pro cycling. That approach didn’t draw any of us into the sport in the first place and it ignores most of the reasons we are here. Sort of disappointing to hear to be honest. While this high performance optimization requires plenty of lab-type work, it ignores the boots-on-the-ground community work that requires listening and participating alongside their customers. Honestly, including athletes in product development and then eating well are table stakes athlete relationship topics and not new business/brand strategy. The strategy insight here is that they’ve decided to hitch their wagon to this high performance horse and leave the others behind - or at least their messaging appears that way. The idea to do less but better also resonates. I agree with Corinne that the Olympic subculture would become a niche within a niche sort of like GTWS already is. We have seen it with climbing recently. My two cents, great work here as always!✌️
Pro-cycling is a very interesting example isn't it? Where Salomon is located, the UCI World Tour remains huge, while in North America it crashed out! From the Tour of California to the Coors Classic and many others, these all collapsed, replaced by gravel racing. Where beer is the preferred fluid replacement.
Always good to hear your thoughts!
Agree, the team development side isn’t particularly new, only the intensity and cohesiveness of their assistance. For instance, I imagine each team has a nutritionist, physio and so on, but Salomon have Aitor as a central co-ordinator whose sole focus is performance through a data lens.
I’m sure they’ll continue community work, but I’m guessing this will suck up a lot of budget away from the usual approach.
Very interesting article and some good comments already. I'm not so sure what to think of it. On one hand I'm a performance-driven person, so I like this direction. On the other, I feel like this will lead to a lot of commercialization of the sport - prices will go up and people will be convinced that they need to spend more and more to get marginal gains, similar to how it is in cycling.
Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to this evolution of trail running!
Marginal gains in the hills, massive losses in the wallet 😅
Very interesting. I'm not sure if he's correct, but Scott Mellin is super smart, articulate, and progressive.
And your insights are exceptional; here's one of many quotable lines that caught my eye: "What begins as play inevitably becomes process; what starts as passion calcifies into structure."
Even if trail running makes it to the Olympics, as C & D-bo also said, that will be another limb of the tree, rather than replacing the tree.
Maybe the worst outcome is us media types will swerve over to reporting professional content, while most non-media runners don't give a shit! 😜
Oh i think thats the case right now! I don’t know how many runners care about the professional side, but if we’re doing % my guess is it will be less than 5%
I get the urge to shrink the team from an unwieldy 300 to a carefully curated/managed 40. But good luck in the years when the injury bug goes around the team at the same time as your tiny well of prospects don’t pan out. I hate to imagine a trail running circuit where Salomon is missing from podiums.
When is trail running going to take a note from the track and field / road running world and develop teams in single locations around premier coaches where they have all the keys to success?
this is just depressing. everything comes back to profit. that said, I think Salomon is overestimating the allure of the sport. I guess we'll see.
Removing pizza and similar foodstuff from trail races (maybe just from the elites' fuelling plan?) does feel like gutting the experience. Product and athlete development are necessary components to a brand like this, and perhaps what Salomon also needs to consider is the stewardship aspect of trail running. The environment is so very much part of the interlocking system they're hoping to optimize and globalize -- I'd feel less apprehensive if I knew they were including trail stewardship and year-round care in their plans for the sport that they are hoping to revolutionize.
All this "fewer but better"-talk from Mellin, but if you look on their male ultra line-up?
You really start wondering, how this should "reshape" the sport, if you just have one world class runner (Blanchard) and a few old men (D'Haene, Sandes, Meier). Hoka and Terrex are miles ahead, when it comes to "roster planning" and getting the right athletes.
With no athletes, you wont shape anything and sell nothing in the end, when you just have one shot at the i.e. UTMB per year, while other brands bring 5-10 high profiled athletes.
I can see your perspective, but it’s WAYYY off.
And when was 40 considered old? 😅
Why is my perspective way off?
Average age UTMB winner male past 14 years: 32,7 (only Pommeret >35 when winning)
Average age WSER winner male past 14 years: 32,5 (only Rob Krar >37 when winning)
With a drop rate of elite male athletes in the UTMB 2024 of roughly 60%, it's just simple math, that the team starting 5-7 elite athletes has better chances to win, that the team with 2-3 elite athletes.