The history of Salomon: how a sports brand grew out of saw manufacturing

Salomon: what kind of brand is it?

The French brand manufactures equipment, clothing and footwear for active tourism, trekking, mountaineering and various sports, including mountain and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, running and others.

Salomon specialises in sports, but the company's line also includes casual items that have become part of the ‘mountain core’ style, which is when activewear is combined with everyday or even classic items in everyday life. Salomon footwear is worn by influencers such as Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber, and Emily Ratajkowski.

Even representatives of high fashion have appreciated the French brand's products. Ralph Lauren wears Salomon, and the brand has collaborated with Parisian boutiques and designers from different countries and participated in Fashion Week in the French capital.

Today, Salomon is a leading French sports brand and one of the industry leaders in the world. But it all started not with sports, but with a small metallurgical business that the Salomon family started 78 years ago.

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Saw production

The founder of the Salomon brand, Georges Salomon, was born in 1925 in the city of Annecy in the Haute-Savoie department. His father wanted his son to become a teacher, but instead, in 1947, Georges began working in a small saw manufacturing workshop opened by his parents, François and Jeanne Salomon.

After the end of World War II and the Nazi occupation, the picturesque region in the French Alps began to return to normal life, which meant an influx of tourists. Annecy is located near Chamonix, where the first Winter Olympics in history were held in 1924, so there were plenty of skiing enthusiasts in the area. The Salomon family quickly realised that their metalworking skills could be put to good use in a new and promising field.

The driving force behind the transition to the ski business was Georges, who convinced his father to change direction. He studied engineering at night school and worked on his first inventions. Early in his career, the young man invented a machine for the automated production of edges, which made their production much faster and more efficient, and also created revolutionary bindings.

The first cable bindings

In 1952, Georges Salomon introduced the first cable binding, which he significantly improved over time. In 1955, the company began producing Salomon Lift cable heel bindings with Scade heads, which opened sideways thanks to roller supports.

Later, Salomon launched the first bindings with an automatically detaching heel, which caused a sensation on the market, including in Germany, where there were the most consumers of alpine skiing products. The success was facilitated by an advertising campaign that emphasised that these bindings were the safest.

The first automatic ski brakes (elements of alpine ski bindings used to brake if the ski comes off while skiing) were also invented by Salomon. In 1975, the brand released the Wehrly model, and later the Riedel brake appeared: it was refined and integrated into the rear of the binding with automatic clamping.