Man, I’ve got that stupid song in my head again. Rickey started it on Monday within a few minutes of arriving in Mallorca and Greg took it to a whole new (on stage) level by Friday evening, with a lot of singing of the song in between. I’m not going subject you to it, but let’s just say the revolving theme of the week was all about Nipples. All kinds of Nipples. And you can imagine, if you will, a song being created about them accompanied by Rickey’s ukulele.

We, the entire Salomon global team of athletes, designers, engineers, and product managers were in Mallorca, Spain for Advanced Week. Being new to the team this was my first Advanced Week and though I’d heard stories about it on occasion I still had no idea what I was getting myself into. It turns out that what I was getting into is the very reason that Salomon has some of the best products on the market when it comes to being in the mountains. It will be difficult to capture the magnitude of the week in one blog post but hopefully it will come across as the exhausting week of work, brainstorming, designing, testing, and running that it was.

A small amount of research on my part before I left told me that the island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean was about half flattish and half somewhat mountainous. Arriving under the cover of darkness I had no idea of the spectacular setting I would wake up to the next morning. We arrived in the small town of Port de Soller, right on this small inlet bay. With less than a week to get everything in we got straight into it with an intro meeting about the week before heading off to a good nights sleep. Needless to say it was going to be a jam packed week.

The days are divided into a morning focus session on a topic like road shoes, apparel, Sense line, etc, then into a key focus area such as apparel that we would spend much of the week discussing in small groups, drawing out the 2017 line up, then actually prototyping out what we wanted. That was cool. How many times have I actually gotten to prototype out some concept I’ve been working on…never.

Then it was off to lunch then the afternoon run or another testing session. Being the new guy an also the one crossing between road and trail meant that I was going to be doing a lot more talking about shoes than running in them this week.

The first few days I spent gazing up at the high peaks around Soller wanting to explore them and squeezing in runs between meetings. Hey, don’t take this as me complaining, I’m not, because it means that I was giving input into product and that’s just as good.

One of the tests was around the town of Fornalutx, a little hillside town above Soller with a beautiful little square, cobbled streets, and tiny old alleyways lined with potted plants. Felt like we were really in a authentic little European village…oh wait. CityTrail for the Euro’s carries a very different meaning than it does for us over on this side of the pond. For the most part we just don’t have the little tiny stairways and cobbled streets that the original CityTrail designers had in mind. For us it’s about running pavement to the trail. A subtle but meaningful difference.

Testing the new X-Series road shoe against some of the best in class (lightweight trainers) came out ahead and next year’s model did even better. It’s cool to see them jump right in with a well fitting shoe that rides well and has a great aesthetic.

As I said in one of my tweets during the week, innovation was definitely off the charts. I only wish I could say more…but I can’t or I would certainly be killed. Aside from that I was blown away by what they’re investing in product design and collaboration with the athletes. I’d heard stories of Advanced Week from other athletes but to experience what a family the team is and how serious they take the design process is amazing to witness, and to now be a part of. It is no doubt why I have found Salomon shoes to be the best footwear for very specific conditions for many years as a footwear buyer. I guess you could say I drank the KoolAid and yes, it was good.

Part of Advance Week was involving the local running community and it Mallorca it turns out this community is rather large and involved. As a local to Soller, Tofol Castanyer helped put Advance Week together and did a great job by all accounts. From arranging airport transport through friends to mapping all of our runs each day to organizing the weeks events outside of the meetings he was one busy dude. The big event of the week was an evening with the Salomon Team. Imagine a 1200+ seat theatre sold out and packed with screaming fans waiting to hear from a bunch of trail runners like they’re rock stars. Yeah, it’s tough to imagine in the U.S. but it was incredible. Team Manager Greg Vollet introduced each athlete individually as we ran down the aisles and onto the stage and the fans went nuts as Kilian, Emelie, Iker and especially Tofal came running down. Salomon Running TV videos were shown, Kilian and Tofal each talked to the crowd, more trail running videos were shown, and we capped off the show with an epic autograph session with all the athletes. After about 1000 autographs, it was THE endurance feat of the week.

We did get to do a bit of running and while I was mostly fitting in my mileage between meetings I did get out on a few team runs around the beautiful island. Most of the trails are pretty technical in nature and quite rocky. A perfect play ground for testing some trail shoes. It was invigorating and inspiring to get to play among the rocks with some truly great trail runners. It’s some of the most joyful running I’ve had in a long time. Not racing but running fast, playing, and just enjoying the art of running through the woods. There were some awesome places up high and little rugged valleys that went unexplored. Just means that I’ll need to go back one day to see more. I wanted to run ridgelines, jump rocks, and explore the unknown.

I was feeling especially deprived because just before Advance Week in Mallorca the Salomon US team had a meeting in Sedona. I was only able to stay for 1 day due to needing to be in Mallorca so I got in only one run in a land of endless red rocks and trails to be explored. Dang it, another place I need to go again. So many trails, so little time. Yeah, I know, poor me.

Finishing off the week was the party that everyone had been talking about all week. It was always “you think this is fun, wait til the party at the end”. It was built up quite a bit and it didn’t disappoint. A semi-private party right on the beach (meaning Salomon hired the band but of course everyone was invited). A dance party with a band right on the beach is hard to beat. There was quite a crowd of locals listening to the band but only my teamies and myself would make a fool of ourselves by dancing the night away. There are some good dancers on the team…and some not so good dancers too (that was me). At one point I was flying around the beach on Greg Vollet’s shoulders though.

Needless to say that Advance Week was huge for me in a lot of different ways. Feeling invested as part of a team means being comfortable with your teammates as people and friends. Nothing helps athletes bond better than working and sharing ideas that everyone is invested in and passionate about. Meeting the designers and product managers helps the athletes feel involved in the process and helps us know who to give feedback to, and I love to give feedback. This is the first truly global team I’ve been on as well. The languages spoken at Advance Week along were Greek, English, Spanish, French, Russian, Swedish, Catalan, and English with a Scottish (yeah, that counts as a separate language). I now truly believe that Salomon is a company that has the best interests of the athletes, race organizers, and the spirit of mountain sport  at heart. It gave me confidence that I made the right decision in joining the Salomon team and I’m proud to race under the Salomon banner (Despite the overall theme of the week being Nipples).

 Salomon Photos by Jordi Saragosa.