Salomon Sponsorship

I know there has been a delay of what my last post was all about. Well, it was still Chinese New Year & long holiday break! Of course, there's also work commitment.

I couldn't think of a better title for this post, so I'm just going to be straight forward here. YES! I've got sponsorship from Salomon. A big brand to those adventure racers or enthusiasts out there. More so the recent champion of the Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon, Kilian Jornet is sponsored by Salomon. Here's a short video of him running the Mount Kinabalu.



I know what is going through in a lot of people's mind is that how can a road runner be getting a sponsorship from world's leading manufacturer in trail running apparels & footwear? You may call it pure luck or maybe I wrote in at the right timing. Whatever it is, I am thankful for the sponsorship. It is not a multi-million dollar sponsorship but I am still proud of it.

Been injured for throughout the 2011 season, I thought I might need to change my training a little bit more this year and that is by adding in trail running into my schedule. It is hard to find soft grounds to run around my area, unless I travel out to FRIM, Gasing Hill or the nearest...mmh...could be Kiara Park. There are many groups out there organising trail running these days. It seems like it is gaining popularity not only to the usual "On On" by Hash Runners but also to the road runners seeking an alternative training route.

How I Got The Sponsorship
Since I decided I needed to get into trail running to mix up my training runs, I thought it's best that I get a trail running shoe for this purpose. After getting to know a friend of mine is working in Amer Sports Malaysia, which happens to be the distributor of Salomon products in Malaysia, I thought I give it a try to write in for sponsorship. I've sent in my running profile to my friend who then helped me forward my request to his counterpart in Salomon, Mori Hiroshi. It took a month or so of patience before Mori, Product Manager of Salomon contacted me, bringing me the good news that I will be getting sponsorship from Salomon. I was thrilled! I was quite surprised by the support Salomon has given to me, judging from my lack of competition last year due to injury. As for trail running, I've not done much of it in Malaysia but I am not new to it. When I was studying in New Zealand, trail running is already a popular sport and I've done a lot of runs in trails and also in cross country races around NZ.

Salomon History 
Salomon originated from Annecy, France in 1947. The company started by François Salomon together with his family. You may not know this, but in 1997 it actually became part of Adidas group. But in May 2005, Adidas-Salomon announced that it had agreed to sell the Salomon Group to Amer Sports, one of the leading sporting goods companies in the world, for €485 million. In the Annecy Design Center, it's the heart of their progressive movement, with 800 people working at the center. This is where the development, marketing & communication for footwear, apparel and equipement takes place.

The Meeting 

I met up with Mori one fine day during lunch at World of Outdoors (which is under World of Sports Malaysia Group) @ The Gardens, which is the main distributor for Salomon products. This is where he presented me with all the sponsored products and also a walk-thru on Salomon products. There were a lot of new stuff I've learned about Salomon through Mori. 

So What Do I Get From This Sponsorship
When I met up with Mori, there were already two bags of products he was carrying to hand over to me. In it were plenty of apparels, jacket, headgears, tees & fuel/hydrapack bags. Best of all, I get the latest XR Crossmax Neutral CS. The XR Crossmax was voted the "Runner's World Top Debut Shoes" award. Click on this link to read more.

That's not all, I got to choose a second pair. I had all the ranges to choose from. Just check out the next few photos below. If it's not clear, well, just walk in to The World of Outdoors located at 3rd floor, The Gardens. You can also head on to their newly opened concept store e@Curve. Kilian was there to launch the event.

As you can see photo above, there are different ranges of shoes you can choose from. XA - Cross Adventure which caters more for hikers, the XT - Cross Terrain catering for runners for all terrains, while the XR - Cross Running, are the hybrid of shoes. It's basically a door to trail running shoe.

But since the thought of doing a trail race is in my plans, I got myself a pair of trail racer, the Salomon S-Lab 3 XT Wings. It's not the latest model, but it does serves it purpose, a lightweight trail racer.

Funny how the shoes I chose are all red....not that I'm a big fan of the colour RED. Ok with an exception, Liverpool is my favourite team.

Some of the other items I got:

Twin Belt - Do come in handy for my long runs!

Skin Pro 3 Set - This bag is amazing. Always wanted one and now I got one!

There are a lot more other apparels I received, but will do a product review soon. Salomon as a brand will be going more aggressively on customer centric activities & increasing consumer engagement with their World of Sports partners. I hope I can make my partnership with them work, to promote both the Salomon products & also trail running among my group of running friends as I continue to explore & learn about trail running myself!