Salomon’s Genesis 2 GORE-TEX Trades Mesh for Matryx on the Shoe Nobody Is Watching

The Genesis 2 GORE-TEX reaches Salomon’s launch calendar on October 8 in Black, Fiery Red and Ftw Silver, which on the shoe means a pale silver Matryx upper, a black cage and a red outsole that wraps up over the heel. It is the second generation of a trail shoe Salomon introduced to chase a specific idea, and the changes between the first and the second are the kind that only show up once somebody has run a few hundred miles in the original.

Genesis is a young line by Salomon standards, and the brand has been unusually plain about what it is for. Salomon describes it as “born from a desire to get away from planned paths routes and get back to the real roots of trail running,” which is marketing language for a shoe built to go off the groomed stuff rather than race on it. The first Genesis ran a Matrix Mesh upper, an Active Chassis and an All-Terrain contaGRIP outsole, a combination aimed at durability rather than at a podium. That matters because Salomon already owns the trail racing conversation with the S/LAB line and owns the street with the XT silhouettes. Genesis was the brand filling the gap in between, the shoe for somebody running the same rocky local loop twice a week in whatever the weather is doing, and Salomon’s own guidance for it still says two to three runs per week rather than a training block. It is worth saying plainly that this is the least glamorous job in a trail range. A shoe like this does not get a campaign or an athlete story attached to it. It gets rebuilt quietly when the feedback comes back, which is exactly what has happened here.

The second version changes the upper material, and that is the headline. Matryx replaces the Matrix Mesh, a woven textile that Salomon calls lighter and more durable in the same breath, and the shoe now carries a visible MATRYX mark on the sidewall where the old mesh was anonymous. The activeCHASSIS is now fully integrated rather than sitting as a separate piece, the midsole platform is wider for stability, and the lug geometry has been reworked for traction. Underfoot is optiFOAM, a cushioned EVA, with an endoFit internal sleeve wrapping the foot and the quicklace system Salomon puts on nearly everything. In the product photography the outsole is the loudest part of the shoe, a full red slab with deep chevron lugs that run in opposing directions front and back, which is the usual way of asking a tread to both climb and brake. The GORE-TEX mark sits low on the sidewall rather than on the heel, so the waterproofing is stated without the shoe shouting about it. The published numbers are a trail shoe’s numbers: 10 ounces per unit, an 8 millimeter drop, 33.5 millimeters of stack at the heel and 25.5 at the forefoot, and a 4 millimeter lug. Salomon rates it neutral, stable and soft, and lists it for mixed, rocky and technical terrain.

Here is the part worth noticing. Salomon’s own product pages carry review counts, and on the day this shoe went on the calendar the Genesis group had gathered 11 of them against a 4.18 average. The XT-6 GORE-TEX, which went up a week earlier, sat at 4.46 across 2,459. That gap is the whole shape of Salomon’s business in one number. The engineering budget goes into shoes like this one, with named materials and published stack heights, and the revenue comes from a silhouette drawn in the early 2010s that people buy to wear with jeans. Neither fact is a criticism. It does mean the shoe getting the genuine upgrade this month is the one almost nobody in sneakers will write about, and the reworked lug and the Matryx swap are more interesting engineering than another colorway of the thing that sells. The 11 reviews are also a reminder to treat that rating carefully. An average built on 11 opinions is a rumour, not a verdict, and anybody reading it as a quality signal against a shoe carrying thousands is comparing two different kinds of number.

Retail is $170, and the ladder around it is instructive. The XT-Whisper GORE-TEX is $165, the XT-6 Protective is $190, the XT-6 GORE-TEX is $200 and the XT-4 OG GORE-TEX tops the group at $220. So the only shoe in Salomon’s waterproof run this month with a published stack height, a stated lug depth and a terrain rating is also the second cheapest thing on the list. Trail pricing follows what a shoe does. Sportstyle pricing follows what a shoe signals, and the two have not been the same number for a while.

The Genesis 2 GORE-TEX in Black, Fiery Red and Ftw Silver carries article reference L49300500 and releases October 8 at $170. A second colorway, L49302000, is dated October 1 on the same calendar. Both are listed at salomon.com, which is the first place either will be in stock. Search by article reference rather than colorway name, because Salomon’s page titles and its on-page color fields do not reliably match.

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The Sneakers Team

The Sneakers Team is the editorial desk behind becausesneakers, founded and edited by Nick Engvall. Nick has spent more than two decades in the sneaker industry. He built the original Eastbay Blog, led the first dedicated sneaker team at Complex, ran the first UGC and seeding programs at Finish Line, was employee number nine at StockX, and served as Senior Director at Stadium Goods. He hosts the Sneaker History podcast, and his first book, Small Luxuries: Sneakers, arrives in October 2026 from Motorbooks. Release details on this site are checked against the brand's own product information before publication, and anything we cannot confirm is labelled rather than stated.

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