The NYC streetwear house and the French outdoor brand teamed up to create an entirely new silhouette for fall, and it’s not what anyone expected.
Kith and Salomon just unveiled the XT-EVO, a completely original trail shoe hitting shelves this fall. This isn’t a remix of an existing Salomon model or a limited colorway situation. This is a ground-up collaboration that brings together Ronnie Fieg’s obsession with technical footwear and Salomon’s decades of mountain credibility into one silhouette that exists nowhere else.
The move signals something shifting in how Kith operates. For years, the brand built its reputation on flipping basketball and running classics into cultural currency. But over the past few seasons, Fieg has been quietly moving into terrain that feels more exploratory, less about nostalgia, more about building something new. A collaboration that requires designing an entirely fresh shoe is the kind of risk that separates tastemakers from trend-riders.
The XT-EVO itself bridges two worlds in ways that feel deliberate rather than forced. You’re getting the kind of grip and stability infrastructure that Salomon hikers and trail runners demand, but filtered through Kith’s aesthetic sensibility, which means clean lines, considered colorways, and details that reward close inspection rather than scream for attention. It’s the opposite of the maximalist trail trend that’s been dominating Instagram.
For Salomon, this is equally strategic. Trail shoes have exploded into the mainstream over the past two years, but the category still skews toward serious athletes and outdoors-first consumers. Teaming with Kith cracks open access to an entirely different audience, the people who care about what’s dropping at Dover Street Market and SSENSE, who might have never considered a technical hiking shoe as cultural currency before now. That’s the real story buried under the launch announcement.
