Five years ago, a men's sneaker rotation built around basketball silhouettes and running trainers would have looked incomplete without a hiking shoe in it. Now the opposite is true. Chunky trail soles, rugged mesh uppers and mountaineering lacing systems have become as normal on city pavements as on actual trails, and no single shoe has ridden that wave further than Salomon's XT-6. It isn't a new launch — the design dates back to 2013 — but 2026 has been the year the trend it started stopped being a trend and started looking like a permanent fixture of the men's shoe rack.
For the release, trend and product context behind this story, see Sgbonline and Gearpatrol.
Why is everyone suddenly wearing trail sneakers?
The short answer: menswear has swung hard towards function-first design, and gorpcore — dressing in technical outdoor gear regardless of whether you're near a trail — has moved from niche to mainstream. The XT-6 benefits more than most because it wasn't built to chase the trend; it was built for actual trail running, which is precisely the point its own designers make.
Heikki Salonen, Salomon's creative director, has been blunt about this in interviews: "Salomon is not a fashion house." The brand's pitch is that it never chased streetwear credibility — it happened organically because the shoe's oversized eyelets, quick-lace system and Contagrip outsole read as authentic rather than costume-y, at a moment when authenticity is exactly what's selling in menswear.
The numbers behind the hype
This isn't just an internet-forum trend — it's now a material part of a public company's earnings story. Amer Sports, Salomon's parent, confirmed that Salomon's full-year 2025 sales surpassed $2 billion for the first time, up 35% year-on-year, with sportstyle footwear (the XT-6 and its siblings, as opposed to ski or trail-running gear) named as a central driver. In the fourth quarter alone, the wider Outdoor Performance segment that includes Salomon grew revenue 29% year-on-year to $764 million, with direct-to-consumer sales up 55%. Management is forecasting another 18-20% of revenue growth for full-year 2026, alongside dozens of new stores planned in the US and Greater China.
- 2025 Salomon sales: over $2 billion, up 35% year-on-year (Amer Sports, confirmed)
- Q4 2025 Outdoor Performance segment revenue: $764m, up 29% YoY, DTC up 55% (Amer Sports)
- 2026 guidance: 18-20% full-year revenue growth forecast (Amer Sports, company guidance — not yet confirmed actuals)
For context on how this started: back when the XT-6 first broke into resale culture, StockX reported trade volume for Salomon growing over 2,000% in a single year, making it briefly the fastest-growing sneaker brand on the platform. That's older, secondary-market data rather than a 2026 figure, but it explains why the current earnings numbers aren't a surprise to anyone who's been watching resale sites.
Which XT-6 should you actually buy?
Salomon now sells the silhouette across several tiers, and the price difference is genuinely a difference in what you're getting, not just packaging.
The design collaboration with MM6 Maison Margiela first released in October 2025 and has just quietly returned with three new colourways (Sunny Lime, Asparagus Green and Black Asphalt), still in stock at time of writing via specialist retailers rather than a hyped, sold-out drop — worth knowing if you want the design without paying resale markups.
Is the XT-6 actually worth it?
For most men shopping outside collector culture, yes — with caveats. The standard XT-6 at €180/£165 sits in the same bracket as a premium running trainer, and you're getting genuine trail-grade grip and cushioning rather than a lifestyle shoe dressed up to look technical. It runs true to size for most people, though the toe box is narrower than newer Salomon models, so half-size-up is common advice among reviewers and retailers alike. Where it's less convincing is as a rain shoe unless you pay the GORE-TEX premium — the standard mesh upper soaks through quickly, which matters for a UK or Pacific Northwest autumn.
If you want the look without the Salomon price creep, it's worth cross-shopping against other brands riding the same wave.
On's Cloudmonster and New Balance's 610/990 lines both play in similar territory — chunkier soles, technical branding, broad menswear appeal — and are worth a side-by-side try-on before committing, especially if trail-specific grip isn't something you actually need.
The honest read: the XT-6 earned its place in the current men's sneaker rotation because it does one job extremely well and never pretended to be something else. That's rarer than it sounds in a category full of shoes designed by a marketing brief first and an outsole second.
