The day Salomon made man fly like a bird (2003)

I came across a few photos of this Salomon suit and it immediately caught my attention, I had to know more, so I started digging.

In 2003, Salomon launched an incredibly bold project : a wingsuit called “Freedom Action Era.” The goal was to merge the worlds of skiing, snowboarding, and free flight by creating a suit inspired by extreme sports.

"And the whole idea was to find, in each of these fields, what could connect to one another, and at the center of it all, there was : AIR. And why air ? Because in all of these sports, there’s always a moment where you more or less break free from gravity" -Jean Luc Diary CEO Salomon (1998-2007)

The idea behind this project was to make humans fly like birds. Obviously, it wasn’t something commercially viable, but in terms of brand image, it was incredibly powerful. At that moment, Salomon reached the peak of technological innovation. The brand showed that, thanks to its design center based in Annecy, it could take on just about any challenge.

"I think wingsuiting is like any other sport, you can do it for fun without necessarily taking too many risks, or you can go a bit harder and really go all in" - Loic Jean Albert (Soul Flyer pro Athlete) 

Raw footage of Loic Jean Albert flying over Le Verbier with a Salomon wingsuit (2003)

Personally, I think this project is incredible and very under-the-radar today, even though back in the early 2000s it did make a bit of noise. It shows how some brands, especially Salomon, were really having fun at the time, pushing research to its limits without necessarily chasing immediate financial gain.