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ADIDAS VS. SALOMON

And now you will wonder: Is this a 0`20 or Runner's World issue? It is not, you are still readint 0`20. Over the last few years we can see photos of special forces operators wearing boots and even shoes of well-known mountain and sport brands.

Of course, this trend was also copied in airsoft shortly after and many players got rid of their classic military-style boots to make room for some more off-road boots that provided +10 points when posing for pics. While Adidas and Salomon have already landed in the world of airsoft, which do we pick?

ADIDAS

Adidas is a German multinational company founded in 1949, specialised in the manufacture of footwear, sportswear and other sport related products. Well, with its over 900 million products I am sure you have heard of it.

You may be surprised to see this brand offering this kind of sports equipment, but it is not something new. It has been several decades since the GSG-9, the special German police anti-terrorist unit, asked them to develop boots to fit their needs. After which they have continued to develop their "GSG9 Tactical Boot" model, which we have seen in SWAT teams and even in films like The Expendables 3 (check Jet Li’s boots, the actor plays the team’s hand-to-hand combat expert, Yin Yang).

But a couple of years ago the German giant stormed into the mountain activities market. And when they put together everything they knew about mountain sports and their experience developing boots for tactical units, they created a product that stands out, that is here to stay and that is increasingly seen in our hobby ;) 

SALOMON

The Salomon Group is a sports equipment manufacturing company founded in 1947 in Annecy, at the foot of the French Alps. So, as you can see, it carries the mountain in its heart.

It entered the 21st century with the launch of its Raid Race, the first XA (mountain shoes) in the market knew along with its winter clothes line. It was a success that did not go unnoticed among operators and that evolved until 2015 when they released their Forces range.

It was a range of boots and sneakers designed for the needs of special forces operators, without neglecting the characteristics that are the hallmark of the French footwear brand. This range offers three series: Assault, Mountain and Extreme Cold Weather. The models from these series are somewhat more complicated to find, so we will talk about models more accessible to the general public.