The core of trail running hasn't changed in ten years — Salomon broke out through women
China's core trail-running population was 100,000 ten years ago, and it's still 100,000 this year — the difference is it's ten years older. Salomon didn't drop its performance line; it pulled in newcomers through women and grew its membership from 100,000 to 8 million.
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The trail-running crowd hasn't grown in ten years, it's just ten years older
When Yin Yi joined Salomon she was asked: guess how many core trail runners there are in China now. She guessed 300,000; the answer was close to 100,000 — the same as ten years ago. The difference is that these 100,000 people are ten years older. She gives two reasons trail running hasn't progressed in ten years: the barrier to entry is too high — in road running you can run three or five kilometres, but trail running starts at 26 kilometres; and the continuous climb can reach 800 metres or even 1,000 metres, demanding a lot from the heart and lungs and a long race-preparation cycle, which puts ordinary consumers off. So Salomon first did urban trail running to lower the barrier, then used elite training camps to turn people into first-time trail runners.
— Yin YiTrail-running prize money is so low nobody wants to go pro
Yin Yi says the first prize at a big trail race might be just 30,000 or 20,000, and at a small race maybe 5,000. In road running, placing might bring 100,000 or 200,000. Trail running has a higher injury rate and is harder, yet the prize money is lower — this is why many young people don't want to take part in the sport: you can't make a living from it. So Salomon built its own Golden Trail Series IP and raised the prize money to the million level, hoping to give more young people better resources and to grow the professional crowd too.
— Yin YiChina's female share peaked near 70%, now under 60%
Salomon's global male-to-female ratio is fifty-fifty, and in China it's more pronounced: at its peak the female share was close to 70%, in 2022 and 2023, the years the brand first drew attention in China. Now it's down to under 60%. Yin Yi explains that women are more sensitive than men to trends and new sports, their antennae sharper, while men focus more on the sports they love and know, and are slower to encounter new things. Also, Salomon's shoes use the same last for men and women, which suits Asian women's foot shapes — Asian women's feet are relatively similar to European men's, whereas many brands use two lasts, and the women's last isn't friendly to Chinese women.
— Yin YiWomen recruit men far more than the reverse
Yin Yi says women recruit men far more than men recruit women. The logic is that women hold the decision-making power in the household: she can decide what the children wear and what her partner wears. If a woman casts a vote in the household, at least 60-70% of users counted by family will choose the same brand. So the female share falling from 70% to under 60% isn't women becoming fewer — it's women influencing the men around them, and the number of men growing faster. Yin Yi also notes that men aren't stingy; they're more willing to spend on the women and family around them, and invest relatively less in themselves.
— Yin YiXiaohongshu doesn't create the wind; the wind is demand amplified
Oudi says many brands ask whether Xiaohongshu is especially good at creating the wind, but Xiaohongshu has always said it doesn't create the wind — the wind can't be created; it must represent some huge demand or emotion among the public being activated and amplified. She gives the example of the cycling-friendly shop map: the community saw people sharing cycling but with no pedals on their bikes and nowhere to park on the street, so the team manually went door to door in Shanghai and other core cycling cities looking for cafés willing to provide bike racks, and turned it into a map they published. Let the scenario grow first, and when more and more people search ‘what to watch out for on a 100km ride as a beginner’, brands come in as mature solutions, forming a three-way win for platform, consumer and brand.
— Ou DiSuper-user representatives sell better than celebrities
Within Xiaohongshu's buyer matrix, Salomon found Jiang Sida: he runs marathons himself, quite hardcore and professional, and at the same time has a very individual sense of aesthetics and styling — exactly the intersection of the professional and the fashionable, matching Salomon's ‘super-user representative’. The collaboration had Jiang Sida go to Paris to run a marathon, doing a month-long companion-style share from pre-race preparation and in-race warm-up to post-run relaxation and stretching, with a flood of users in the comments asking how to buy the shoes he wore; only after he returned did they do a dedicated session, and it sold very well. Yin Yi says that when an ordinary consumer has lived through it, their telling has more texture than the brand's general manager telling it.
— Ou DiTen years ago brands looked at the winning moment, now at the whole process
Yin Yi compares doing brands ten years ago: back then it was more about real sports stars and athletic performance, the core being the winning moments, telling you how to win a race, the process however hard but all worth it. Now young people watching opinion leaders no longer watch the moment of winning but the whole process — athletic attitude, life attitude, preparation, how the people around them do it, how to protect yourself. Consumers pay more attention to details. The definition of victory has changed too: beating yesterday's self is a victory, running five minutes more than yesterday is a victory, running ten kilometres more is even more of a victory.
— Yin YiConnect online and offline and traffic can double
Yin Yi explains Salomon's traffic logic is O2O, both Offline to Online and Online to Offline, and what needs to be built is an ecosystem. Once connected it's called repeat traffic, circulable traffic: if one unit of traffic goes to store A and store B once each, that traffic is doubled; the e-commerce logic is the same — one visit is one unit of traffic, two visits are two. Online, Xiaohongshu's audience, gender and scenario data are used to place A-tier product bundles; offline, you face the whole city's consumers, and each store's consumer type is different, so different product-bundle combinations give better answers.
— Yin YiIn their own words · checked verbatim
They also told me that ten years ago, twelve years ago, it was 100,000 people. I thought it must be at least 300,000. He said no, this year it's also close to 100,000. So what's the difference? The difference is that these 100,000 people are ten years older than ten years ago.
他们也告诉我了十年前十二年前是十万人 我想怎么也得有三十万人 他说不是今年也是接近十万人 那区别是什么 区别就是比十年前这十万人老了十岁
Yin Yi6:04
Globally we're actually fifty-fifty. In China it's more pronounced. In China, at the peak it was close to 70%, and now it's under 60%.
全球其实我们都是一半一半 中国会更明显 中国的话 最高的时候是接近七成 现在的话是六成不到
Yin Yi18:08
And women recruiting men is far higher than men recruiting women.
然后女性对于男性的拉薪 远远高于男性对于女性的拉薪
Yin Yi20:45
Xiaohongshu actually doesn't create the wind. I think the wind can't be created. It must represent some huge demand or emotion behind the general public being activated and amplified.
小红书其实不造风 我觉得风是没法造的 它一定是代表一个社会大众背后 有一个什么很巨大的需求或者情绪被激发放大
Ou Di28:16
You find that on Xiaohongshu, buying is the beginning of a share, not the end of a transaction.
就你发现那小红书 就是购买是一个分享的开始 而不是一个交易的结束
Ou Di37:22
Today she doesn't want to pile up rituals, but rather pursues this inner relaxation.
今天她不想要做一些仪式感的堆叠 而是更追求内心的这种松弛
Ou Di46:29
Seeding means offering a solution to the lifestyle each person aspires to.
种草就是说给每一个人 他向往的生活方式提供一个解决方案
Ou Di1:15:51
Figures
| Salomon brand history | 78 years, founded in France in 1947 | 3:03 |
| China's core trail-running population | about 100,000 ten years ago, still close to 100,000 this year | 6:04 |
| Salomon brand-asset members | over 8 million | 6:04 |
| Trail-running population growth over four years | from 2021 to 2025 it grew about seven to eight times | 7:05 |
| First prize at trail-running races | about 30,000 or 20,000 at large races, about 5,000 at small ones | 10:06 |
| Salomon China female share | peaked near 70%, now under 60% | 18:08 |
| Salomon Xiaohongshu repeat-purchase share | 25% | 36:22 |
| Salomon effective-member share | over 33% | 42:25 |
Glossary
- the winning moments
- The narrative approach brands used to focus on the instant a sports star took the title, now replaced by the growth process.
- OOTD
- Outfit of the Day, the content tag for sharing the day's outfit on social platforms.
- repeat traffic
- After online and offline are connected, the same traffic reaches multiple stores or channels repeatedly, its value stacking up.
How to listen
Operators building consumer brands, outdoor sports and community commerce, especially brand leads who want to understand female-driven acquisition and online-offline linkage.
After 1:08:05, the brand advice for AI founders is fairly generic and can be skipped.