Salomon’s S/Lab Skyway, the shoes Maxime Pinot helped to develop then raced the Red Bull X-Alps in, are now available to buy. They are made specifically for hike-and-fly racing and retail at €200 a pair.
Salomon’s S/Lab products are their top-of-their range models, developed with and for top-class athletes to compete in, and they have some of the world’s best ultra runners working with them.
The Skyway is their first shoe that is dedicated to hike-and-fly. The Annecy-based manufacturer worked with “a community of athletes in Europe”, but notably Maxime Pinot, who is right at the top of hike-and-fly racing and also lives nearby, to develop a shoe for the specific needs of this niche sport.
Maxime wrote: “As a hike-and-fly athlete, you want a shoe that won’t get in your way when you are walking for hours after hours. When working on the S/LAB Skyway with Salomon, lightness and comfort were the key elements I wanted, and the end result is everything I could wish for.”
The soles are built for protection and grip on varied surfaces
The shoes have Salomon’s Energy Foam in the midsole for long-distance comfort, and the Sensifit system that wraps around the foot to hold it in place. The Contagrip outsole has deep, mud-shedding lugs which are designed to work well on different types of ground in different conditions.
Salomon’s quick-lace system pulls the laces to tighten them and then locks with a plastic mechanism, rather than having to tie laces. There are no hooks, and the system stows away cleanly so there is nothing for paraglider lines to snag on.
The S/Lab Skyway weighs 297g in a size 42.
A nod to paragliding in the lace system detailing and the heel colours: red on one foot, blue on the other
