Outdoor sports giant aims to innovate through recycling

ISTANBUL

French outdoor sports equipment manufacturer Salomon Group plans to recycle its running shoes to produce ski boots to extend the lifecycle of its products.

“Our playground is nature, and our mission is to provide a sustainable product cycle,” Ceylan Ateş, business development manager for the Near East and South Africa at Salomon’s parent company Amer Sports, told Anadolu Agency.

Amer Sports is the owner of several sports brands including Salomon, Atomic, Arc’teryx, Peak Performance, Wilson and Precor.
“Skate boots’ lifecycle is much longer than our road running shoes or any other running shoe,” she said.

She said there are already several brands of recyclable textile products, but Salomon will be the first firm in the footwear area.

Mentioning the firm’s 2020 strategies, she noted that it aims to improve awareness of women’s outdoor apparel.

Ateş highlighted that the firm is inviting Turkish women to be part of its hiking campaign and create a women’s category for its new shoes collection.

“There are more dedicated styles for the body posture of women, starting from shoes, apparel, gear and bags,” she said.
Noting that women like to do everything together, especially in Turkey, she said the firm provides more comfortable wear for ladies to encourage them to take part in outdoor sports.

Salomon’s studies also increase awareness for focusing on research and development activities in women’s outdoor products, she added.

Touching on the firm’s Turkey operations, she stressed that the country is a very important market for the outdoor products sector.

“Starting from skiing, snowboarding, hiking, trail running, road running, all these are doable in this landscape of Turkey,” she said.

As the largest outdoor footwear provider in Turkey, Salomon had a 45 percent market share in its field in the country last year.

Ateş also mentioned Turkey’s well-known sports event the Salomon Cappadocia Ultra-Trail and said this year, it is expected to host more international athletes.

The event is hosted in Cappadocia, a UNESCO world heritage site in central Anatolia.

Last year, the Cappadocia event was joined by 2,650 athletes from 80 countries and the number of attendees is expected to reach 3,000 this year.

Salomon Group was founded in 1947 by Francois Salomon in the heart of the French Alps.

Amer Sports operates in 34 countries and employs nearly 10,000 people.