Salomon Waterproofs the XT-4 OG, the Archive Runner the XT-6 Was Built From

Salomon has the XT-4 OG GORE-TEX on its launch calendar for October 7, dressed in Paloma, Cloudburst and Ftw Silver, a colorway that reads as three shades of grey until the light finds the midsole. What makes it worth stopping on is not the colorway. It is the position. Before the XT-6 became the Salomon that everyone can name on sight, there was an XT-5, and before the XT-5 there was this shoe. Salomon is finally selling the ancestor with the same weather package it hands the icon.

Salomon’s own telling of how the XT-6 happened runs backward through the line. The XT-6 came out of the XT-5, the XT-5 came out of the XT-4, and the XT-4 came out of the XT Wings, which is where the family starts. Every one of them was built by the S/LAB group for trail racing, which at Salomon has always meant a shoe worn by athletes like Francois D’Haene and Ryan Sandes long before anybody picks a retail colorway for it.

The XT-6 itself arrived in 2013 as the S/LAB XT-6 and did not become a lifestyle product until Salomon reissued it in 2018 under the Sportstyle banner. The XT-4 never got the same second act. It has been back in the line as the XT-4 OG since at least 2023, sold as an archive piece rather than as a running shoe, and for most of that stretch it has been what people bought when the XT-6 they wanted was gone. Salomon’s own copy calls this one authentically remade, which is the brand saying plainly that the design is not being improved, only reissued.

The GORE-TEX membrane is the entire argument for the update. Everything under it is the archive shoe. A full-length Agile Chassis skeleton runs the length of the midsole, dual-density EVA sits above it, the drop is 10 millimeters and the listed weight is 14 ounces. That weight is the detail worth noticing, because it makes this the heaviest of the three Salomon sneakers landing October 7 and heavier than plenty of hiking shoes. The XT-4 was drawn when trail shoes were allowed to be substantial, and the OG reissue has not slimmed it down.

The Paloma, Cloudburst and Ftw Silver execution is quieter than most XT-4 OG colorways Salomon has run. Mesh, overlays and midsole all sit inside a narrow grey range, and the only places that break it are the lace hardware and a small red marker on the outsole. On a shoe this busy, with this much webbing and this many overlay lines, a flat colorway is a real decision. It lets the construction read as texture instead of as graphics, which is the opposite of what most archive reissues do when they want to be noticed.

Salomon is running a specific play here and October 7 makes it legible. Three archive silhouettes go up the same day, the XT-4 OG and the XT-Whisper both carrying GORE-TEX and the XT-6 carrying a ripstop workwear upper. None of them is a new shoe. All of them are old shoes handed a reason to exist in October rather than in June. That is a seasonal calendar, which is what a brand builds once it no longer needs a fresh silhouette every quarter to hold attention. It is also the quieter half of a year in which Salomon named BLACKPINK’s JISOO a global ambassador and began shooting its sneakers as fashion product rather than as equipment. The campaign frame for this release is a portrait in fog on the edge of a city, not a shoe on a rock.

At $220 the XT-4 OG GORE-TEX is the most expensive of the three, which is the part that will annoy people. The XT-6 Protective is $190, the XT-Whisper GORE-TEX is $165, and the Genesis 2 GORE-TEX trail shoe landing the following day is $170. The oldest design in the group carries the highest number, and it is the only one of the three with no current performance counterpart anywhere in the line. For reference, Kith’s XT-EVO collaboration retailed at $200 and was a far scarcer release. A GORE-TEX membrane is a genuine cost and it belongs in the price. It is still a lot to put on a reissue.

The Salomon XT-4 OG GORE-TEX in Paloma, Cloudburst and Ftw Silver releases October 7 at $220, under article reference L49210800, in unisex sizing. It is live now on Salomon’s own product page with a notify option, and it sits on the brand’s launch calendar alongside the rest of the October group. If GORE-TEX on a lifestyle silhouette is the hook, the Air Jordan 1 Low Element GTX and the Air Max Goadome Low are both arguing the same case from different directions.

Written by

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.

More from The Sneakers Team →