The Zegama Hike Drops the Color Story and Goes Full Blackout

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Nike ACG’s breakout hiking boot loses its earth-tone palette for a tonal Black/Anthracite build, out August 7 in Japan.

Most new Salomon sil get a shh mainline rollout. The XT-EVO didn’t. Its first public appear came through a collision with Kith, which introduced the model to the world in two loud colorways this August as part of Ronnie Fieg’s &Kin Fall 2026 range before Salomon’s own in-line versions had even been confirmed. That’s an unusual sequencing for a brand better known for building trail-running credibility first and streetwear appeal second, and it says something about how much confidence Salomon has in the shape underneath the noise.

The profile due out overseas on September 2 in Alloy/Castle Rock/Footwear Silver (L45419100) is one of those in-line versions, arriving without a convincer name attach and letting the design speak for itself. Where the Kith pairs leaned into saturate tincture blocking, brown-and-purple on one and a vivid yellow molded shell on the other, this build strips the shoe back to a tonal grey palette that puts the actual construction, rather than any branding exercise, front and center.

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The XT-EVO’s defining feature is its upper, and it’s the part of the shoe most worth slowing down on. Salomon has moved away from the woven textile uppers that have carried the XT family for over a decade and replaced them with liquid rubber-molded panels layered onto a breathable mesh base. Strip-like lines run from heel to toe across the lateral side, then flip vertically across the forefoot, where the reinforcement doubles as the shoe’s most visible design statement. It’s a look borrowed loosely from racing-shoe construction, translated into something built to be worn on pavement rather than a track.

In Alloy/Castle Rock/Footwear Silver, that construction becomes the whole story. The translucent grey molded parts sit over a soft alloy mesh, letting the grid-pattern underlay show through and giving each panel a sense of depth that a single flat color wouldn’t. A metallic silver Salomon wordmark at the heel provides the one real accent point against an otherwise restrained palette, while a Castle Rock outsole anchors the look from below. It’s a deliberate contrast to the brand’s bolder Black/Fiery Red pairing, which leans on saturated color to do the talk; this one is built to let the materials and structure carry the shoe instead.

Hand Holds Pair Of Green And Cream Salomon Gore-Tex Trail Shoes With Quicklace System

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Underneath the new upper, the XT-EVO is still very much a Salomon shoe. The midsole runs on the brand’s Agile Chassis System, the same stability-focused platform found across the XT-6 line, paired with cushioning built to manage impact on landing without sacrificing the shoe’s low-profile feel. Below that sits a Contagrip outsole, Salomon’s proprietary rubber compound tuned for grip and durability across varying surface conditions, a detail that traces back to the brand’s roots in technical trail and mountaineering footwear even as the XT-EVO itself is built for city sidewalks rather than switchbacks.

A QuickLace system rounds out the technical package, letting wearers adjust fit with a single pull rather than traditional laces, a detail carried over from Salomon’s trail-running shoes that has become a signature across its SportStyle lineup. Nike and adidas have leaned into similarly trail-derived speed-lacing systems on their own city-facing silhouettes in recent years, but Salomon’s version remains one of the more recognizable versions of the mechanism in current rotation. According to Salomon’s U.S. product listings for the model, the shoe carries a 10mm drop and weighs roughly 13 ounces, numbers that land the XT-EVO closer to a running shoe’s profile than a bulkier lifestyle shoe despite its voluminous mold upper.

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Salomon has not published extensive detail on how many colorways it plans to roll out for the XT-EVO’s mainline debut, but the Alloy/Castle Rock/Footwear Silver pairing is scheduled to rel overseas on September 2, 2026, according to a Japan market rel notice. It follows the shoe’s Kith-backed introduction earlier in August and joins the Black/Fiery Red pairing as one of the outline first non-collide colorways, suggesting Salomon is treating the XT-EVO less as a one-off connection vehicle and more as a genuine addition to its ongoing SportStyle rotation alongside the XT-6, XT-Whisper, and XT-4 OG.

Expend for the model has not been confirmed for this specific rel, though other early XT-EVO colorways spotted at overseas retailers have carried a $225 price point, position the form at the upper end of Salomon’s current lifestyle range. Given the brand’s track record with the XT-6’s slow build from niche trail crossover to shoe-world staple, the XT-EVO’s early rollout, backed by a high-profile Kith debut and now a run of quieter mainline colorways, points to a silhouette Salomon expects to stick around well past its first season.