Fall 2020


07


media. We weren’t going to send people emails about buying running shoes when they couldn’t leave their homes and their loved ones may have fallen ill. It simply would not have been an empathetic thing to do. So during those dark days of spring, we


were churning out content that was more inspirational in nature, showing people the outdoors they were longing for in an effort to stay in front of them as a brand. Much of that


Throughout the worst days of the lockdown, with so much suffering in the world, we were very careful about how we communicated from a brand standpoint.


content came from our extremely creative sponsored athletes and brand ambassadors. Behind the scenes, though, we were preparing for the time when we could once again talk more directly about our products, which are obviously the lifeblood of the business. In particular, we spent a fair bit of time planning how we would unveil the new Index.01 Recyclable Running Shoe, a new product that won’t be available until the spring of 2021. The Index.01 is a road running shoe


that our footwear and sustainability experts have been toiling away on for the last couple of years. The upper of the shoe is made of recycled polyester, and the bottom unit is made of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Both parts are recyclable. At the end of the shoe’s life, the upper and bottom units can be separated to begin the recycling process. Once separated, the bottom unit can be ground down


into tiny pellets and then combined with virgin TPU to make Salomon alpine ski boots and other products. The polyester upper can also be reused in the creation of fabric. Our footwear team is also working to make sure the shoes are collected and recycled locally to minimize the process’s carbon footprint. Sustainability is an important topic to our consumers (and our employees), who love being outside in nature. When the world opened up, we all believed internally that the timing was ideal to tell the brand story about the Index.01. People were (and are) looking for positive news. I don’t want to overstate the importance of one recyclable running shoe in the planet’s news cycle, but at a time when people saw the earth in general as “sick,” we thought that the public would enjoy seeing something that is a positive step in the right direction for the planet, however small it might be. The reaction of our followers and media partners to this product unveiling confirmed that.


MAKING A SPLASH From the beginning, we felt the Index.01 was a very newsworthy item, and we had laid some groundwork the year before to tell this story. In late 2019, when we announced Salomon’s long-term sustainability goals, we also unveiled a concept for a recyclable running shoe. That concept shoe was not anything we would sell—or even anything that was ready to be run in—but it did offer the public a look behind the curtain and build credibility for the brand when we were announcing our sustainability commitments. The reception was very positive. Media were curious to know what the concept shoe might lead to. Ten months later, we had a real recyclable shoe, and we wanted to be sure they all saw it. In the outdoor industry, it’s quite difficult


to make a splash with new products. Most are unveiled a year in advance of their retail availability at large industry trade shows in Europe and North America. Once those


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