In the past few years, Salomon has risen in the footwear consciousness from an outdoorsy oddity to a genuine player in the market. While the trendiness of “gorpcore” aesthetics certainly didn’t hurt, don’t discount the brand’s own efforts in reaching their current status. Over that span, they’ve savvily joined up with names from Feid to atmos to Maison Margiela to help showcase the diverse creative applications possible with their silhouettes. Sneaker News now brings you an exclusive look at the next step in that story: an upcoming capsule between Salomon and Aries on the XT-Whisper.
To briefly recap, Aries grabbed the Salomon Snowclog for the duo’s inaugural collaboration, with founder Sofia Prantera noting that the silhouette was “softer and lighter” than what consumers had associated the sneaker brand with. In almost a total inversion, now the brand reaches for the XT-Whisper, an inline step by Salomon into airier territory, and hardens its construction.
You’ll spot that immediately with the TPU overhaul of the quarter panel, given 3D texture in contrast to its usual thin synthetic layout. It’s also a clever bit of branding for the Italian label, working their “A” monogram into the design. Towards the rear, another novel tie comes with the co-branded hit at the collar, pinning the Salomon brand name within broken Roman columns, another hallmark of the Aries ecosystem. Two colorway options have been revealed here, one embracing a romantic blend of pink and red that culminates in a rosy gradient within the sidewalls, and an all-black counterpart, breaking up its nocturnal profile with a flash of tan underneath the heel.
From Salomon’s perspective, this ends a brief intermission in the XT-Whisper push, only having been introduced in December of 2024. In short order, the brand followed up that mainline debut with two rather splashy collaborative efforts, nabbing KITH and Sandy Liang as the calendar turned over, before the silhouette largely disappeared from the ‘wire for a few months.
At the time of this writing, release details for the Aries x Salomon XT-Whisper remain tightly guarded. We’ll keep this page updated with additional info as we receive it, but in the meantime, catch in-hand shots of both pairs included below.
