Fashion Girls Just Traded Slim Kicks for Chunky Trail Sneakers

They're the surprising shoe trend I'm getting behind.

women wearing salomon sneakers
(Image credit: Getty Images; Launchmetrics Spotlight)

A change is afoot in fashion these days—and I mean that literally. After months of choosing ultra-slim sneakers, fashion girls are abandoning them for trendy options from Salomon, the French trail-running outdoor-wear brand that has taken the street style scene by storm.

Salomon's ultra-sporty offerings have become instantly recognizable thanks to a slew of chunky, gorp-core silhouettes and bold color combinations. These very combinations have captured the attention of It-girls like Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski, two tastemakers who remain at the forefront of the year’s biggest sneaker trends. Hadid has been spotted in a red-and-black style in the past, while Ratajkowski prefers a lime-green and yellow version with teal accents.

Bella hadid wearing black trousers, a sage green jacket, and black trousers in New York.

Hadid proved that she was ahead of the curve when she styled her Salomon sneakers.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The styles have also garnered a cult following online among fashion insiders who depend on them for long days spent outdoors. "I love Salomons because they are a trendy shoe that doesn’t sacrifice comfort," says Karya Schanilec, a New York-based street-style photographer who is never not wearing Salomons while on the job. "My XT-6s are my most worn pair of shoes by far."

I am a recent convert, thanks to a few buzzy collaborations with New York designer Sandy Liang, the second of which introduced the ballet-sneaker trend to the world last year. I managed to score a pink pair of Liang-ified XT-Whisper sneakers. The style was released in January 2025, sold out instantly, and became a mainstay sneaker trend on the street during the Fall 2025 iteration of New York Fashion Week. I loved them so much that I got another pair of the same style in a creamsicle-orange-and-white colorway. Consider me inspired by summer's biggest color trends.

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But if you missed out on the viral girlhood-inspired pairs, don’t fret. You can still find several similar styles on the brand’s site, all of which retail for under $200. Ahead, I rounded up the cutest options. Consider the brand as the modern-day response to the wrong-shoe theory. Somehow, they just work.

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Julia Marzovilla
Fashion E-Commerce Editor

Julia Marzovilla is the Fashion E-Commerce Editor at Marie Claire, where she reviews the latest launches from fashion and beauty brands, finds the best on-sale items around the internet, and interviews experts to find the best products in any category to share with her readers. She also creates shopping guides that span every vertical on the site as an expert in everything from the best laptop bags to the best laser hair removal devices.

In her near decade of experience, Julia has both written for several top outlets in the E-Commerce space and worked at major fashion labels. Prior to joining the Marie Claire team, she contributed similar shopping stories to sites such as Bustle, InStyle, The Zoe Report, Who What Wear, and worked as the Trending Fashion and News Writer STYLECASTER. You can find her across the internet at @JuliaMarzovilla. In real life, you can find her creating shopping guides for her friends, cooking or baking in her too-small kitchen, or buying tickets for the next time Harry Styles is in town.

Julia has a Bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Journalism from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. She lives in New York City, her hometown.