The French performance powerhouse Salomon has signaled a decisive acceleration into the global lifestyle and high-fashion arena with the official appointment of Heikki Salonen as its first-ever Creative Director. The move, long anticipated following exclusive reports, formalizes a pivotal strategic shift for the Annecy-based brand, aiming to unify its heritage in mountain sports with its burgeoning status as a cultural and fashion icon.
Salonen, a Finnish designer renowned for his 12-year tenure leading the creative direction of MM6 Maison Margiela, steps into a newly created role that encompasses an expansive remit: overseeing product design and brand creative direction across all soft goods, including apparel, footwear, and accessories.
Speaking exclusively from Salomon’s expansive Paris headquarters and showroom, Salonen encapsulated the unique dynamic of his transition: "I used to be a hiker in the fashion world, now I’m a fashion guy in the hiking world.” This sentiment perfectly captures the cross-pollination that has defined Salomon’s explosive growth over the last half-decade, moving from a highly respected performance-only brand to a key player in the "gorpcore" movement, where technical gear meets urban aesthetics.
The appointment is far more than a simple hiring; it is a declaration of intent to consolidate Salomon’s position at the intersection of performance technology and subcultural relevance. Guillaume Meyzenq, CEO of Salomon, articulated this ambition, calling Salonen’s arrival “a unification of brand positioning, consumer experience, and product innovation.” Meyzenq added that the company is "delighted to welcome Heikki to the Salomon executive board and to see where his vision takes Salomon’s next chapter.”
The Architect of Anti-Disruption
While Salonen’s pedigree at MM6 Maison Margiela suggests a background steeped in conceptual design, deconstruction, and avant-garde sensibilities—hallmarks that might suggest radical overhaul—his immediate vision for Salomon is surprisingly grounded in continuity and respect for the brand’s deep archives.
“What’s nice about [Salomon] is that there’s nothing broken, there’s an amazing past and there’s great products already there,” Salonen noted in his interview. Unlike creative directors hired to resurrect struggling luxury houses, Salonen’s mandate is not disruption but rather elevation and harmonization. He aims to amplify the existing strengths, particularly the enviable balance the brand has achieved between high-level performance and undeniable subcultural cachet, especially within its globally recognized footwear division.
Salonen’s philosophy is rooted in the idea that product strength must be supported by cultural context. “Salomon has always been nicely not just [about] product but also [about] creating cultures around things,” he explained. “I think that’s what we need to keep on doing because if there is no culture around products, they are completely irrelevant.” This focus suggests a strategic approach that prioritizes community building, storytelling, and maintaining the organic authenticity that first drew the fashion world to its technical trail running shoes.
Bridging the Silos: A New Internal Structure
To achieve this unification of culture and product, Salonen plans to implement significant changes to the internal design methodology, focusing on breaking down traditional departmental boundaries. High on his agenda is the dissolution of strict product line separations.
“I would love to have these missions [where] we also break the idea of a shoe designer and an apparel designer [so] that everybody can pitch in and be there,” he stated. For Salonen, the collective passion for the sport and the product should transcend specialized roles, allowing for better "cross-pollination" of ideas. This integrated approach, where footwear designers contribute to apparel concepts and vice versa, is intended to reinforce the brand’s legacy of marrying technical functionality across different product categories seamlessly.
Furthermore, Salonen intends to challenge the industry’s traditional seasonal cycles. While hard goods (like skis and bindings) remain outside his immediate purview, his vision for soft goods is singular. “We want to make sure that we go out there as one brand and break this idea of winter sports, summer sports,” he emphasized. The goal is to establish Salomon as operating within “one space, and it’s a mountain outdoor athletic place.” This narrative consistency is crucial for establishing Salomon as "the world’s premier mountain sports lifestyle brand," a definition the company is now embracing fully.
Key Hires and Organizational Alignment
Salonen is not undertaking this vast creative and organizational restructuring alone. A crucial addition to the leadership team is Laura Herbst, who joins as the newly installed Studio Director. Herbst brings a formidable track record, having worked alongside Salonen for over a decade, with previous experience at influential houses like MM6, Céline, and Maison Margiela. Her appointment ensures institutional memory and a shared understanding of Salonen’s creative processes will be integrated immediately into Salomon’s Annecy operations.
The appointment also necessitates a shift in the executive reporting structure. Salonen’s arrival dovetails with the departure of Scott Mellin, Salomon’s Global Chief Brand Officer of three years, who is exiting the company. Meanwhile, Nick Parkinson, who joined the Amer Sports-owned entity in March 2023 as Global Brand Creative Director, remains in his role, but his focus on marketing and campaign material will now report directly to the marketing division and, crucially, to Salonen. This places the strategic oversight of the brand’s visual identity firmly under the new Creative Director’s purview.
From Collaboration to Core Apparel Strength
Salomon has cemented its modern reputation largely through strategic, high-impact collaborations with fashion-forward entities, including its prior partnership with MM6 Maison Margiela, Parisian retailer The Broken Arm, and designers such as Sandy Liang. Salonen confirms that collaborations will continue to be a tool for cultural engagement, but he stresses a critical re-prioritization.
“A big part is to create our apparel and make it strong, relevant not just to hardcore athletes but also democratized to make sure people of all ages and all genders can enjoy these products,” he asserted. This signals an increased focus on developing the in-house soft goods line to match the cultural success and technical performance of the brand’s iconic footwear.
Regarding his first official output, Salonen rejects the idea of a splashy, disruptive “first collection.” He favors a smooth, continuous evolution of the product line, mirroring his longstanding belief in the concept of a continuous wardrobe, where style emerges from mixing and matching across categories and eras.
While he is committed to continuity, Salonen promises innovation in unexpected corners of the market. He aims to be “innovating in place where the industry has been a little bit stagnant,” hinting at upcoming releases: “You will see a new product coming from Salomon and maybe something that was not expected from us.”
Salomon’s strategic evolution, defining itself as a "modern mountain sport brand," positions it perfectly for the future. As a premium partner of the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Milan and Cortina, the brand is preparing for massive global visibility. Heikki Salonen’s role, therefore, is to ensure that when the world looks toward the mountains, they see a cohesive, culturally rich, and aesthetically compelling brand identity, built on an unwavering commitment to authentic performance.