Guillaume Meyzenq is ready to take Salomon to the next level.
In a decades-long career at the French outdoor brand, Meyzenq’s journey with Salomon began 30 years ago as an intern at the company’s Annecy headquarters in France – and he hasn’t looked back. Over the years, he has held several roles including sales manager, vice president of footwear and, most recently, chief product officer.
In January, Meyzenq took the helm as president and chief executive officer of the brand and remains laser-focused on Salomon’s future; one that is dedicated to retail development and to its core strength in footwear innovation.
“Salomon has experienced a period of great transition over the last five years,” Meyzenq told FN in an exclusive interview. “We were a core performance brand rooted in outdoor, and now we are currently offering a broader spectrum of product. Now, we define ourselves today as a modern mountain sport brand, which I believe speaks to our roots in design and engineering as well as our culture of development, innovation and mountain sport.”
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When it comes to product innovation, the executive called out Salomon’s renewed focus on running. Meyzenq noted that the company recently released the Aero Blaze 3, a road runner model featuring the brand’s OptiFoam2 TPU-based midsole foam, a refined forefoot rocker, a refreshed engineered knit upper, and RoadContagrip technology,
“While our legacy is in trail running, we want to translate our success in the category into a more urban space,” Meyzenq said. “We are doing this through our product pipeline, which features our super shoe and the new Aero Blaze 3 model. We are also focused on providing lifestyle footwear, which can be a bit scary for a performance brand like us. But we define lifestyle as making products for our consumer for all hours of the day – whether that be providing shoes for hiking, for them to wear to the office, or to go out to dinner.”
But for now, Salomon’s Sportstyle category is still leading the charge in terms of sales for the brand, the CEO said.
“What we did in Sportsstyle is exactly what we used to do in performance,” Meyzenq maintained. “We started to connect with our community through collaborations, or what we call intersections, really over the last five years. We have developed some really strong partnerships in the fashion and culture space. Some of our strongest partners are MM6 Maison Martin Margiela and The Broken Arm, a store in Le Marais in Paris. We unfold a new story, a new energy, with these partners every season. And that’s how you create this long-lasting creativity that resonates with consumers.”
As for the brand’s retail presence, Meyzenq is focused on growing Salomon’s footprint in prominent cities with a diverse range of consumers. In May, Salomon opened its third location in London’s Battersea Power Station development. The new brand store features both performance and Sportstyle offerings and joins the company’s brand flagship store in Covent Garden, which opened in October, and its Soho Sportstyle boutique, which opened in November.
And having multiple locations in one city focused on different product offerings is not new for Salomon. The company implemented a similar strategy in Paris and hopes to replicate it in other cities like New York.
“The objective is to cover New York, because, of course, one store is not enough for the scale,” Meyzenq said. The opportunity we have in New York is very exciting, and we are also looking at locations in Los Angeles and Miami.”
All in, Meyzenq said the company expects to have 10 owned Salomon stores in the U.S. by the end of 2026.
This growth comes opening is part of a bigger retail rollout strategy that comes after Salomon parent company Amer Sports raised $1.37 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange last year.
In May, Amer Sports reported that it saw revenue increase 23 percent to $1.47 billion in the first quarter of 2025, up from $1.19 billion the same time the prior year. Net income in the period increased from $5 million to $135 million, or 24 cents per diluted share.
Amer Sports’ CEO James Zheng said in May that sales of Salomon sneakers exceeded $1 billion in 2024, but remains “tiny” relative to the $180 billion global sneaker market. “We believe Salomon sneakers have an authentic and unique market position with technical features designed for athletes on a variety of terrains, but also great for everyday use,” Zheng said at the time. “Our unique style and the technical attributes are relevant with consumers at a time when they are more receptive than ever to wearing new sneaker brands.”
Looking ahead, Meyzenq excited for the Winter Olympics next year set to take place in Milan in February.
“The Milano-Cortina Olympic Games will be quite an exciting moment for Salomon as we are a premium partner for the event,” the executive added. “We are coming with a full storytelling package, from winter sports-driven material to Sportstyle for a unified message. This is a big commitment for us to unfold, but it will be rewarding for the consumer to experience.”
