French Graphic Stripes

I really love Salomon XT-4 OG and XT-6 shoes mostly because they are incredibly comfortable and light but also for their distinctive striped tongue graphic. The visual language reminds me of Mavic bicycle rims, another French brand that I have sworn by, since the 1990s, for their durability, cost and style.

The connection did not occur to me though until I encountered DammButta’s instagram post.

If you look closely you will see that he is wearing Salomon XT-6s and riding Mavic Ellipse track wheels. (By the way, I love everything about this photo — do follow DammButter and his Record Everything Crew on IG. )

Ellipse are one of Mavic’s newer wheels that present the brand in a bit of a different way than previous rims but still retain the stripey-ness and yellow box logo. (I am not a branding guy I just like color and typography.)

The treatment is in response to the shape of the rim itself where the cross section is more like a V. Other Mavic rims are boxy and display branding on top of the rim instead of the sides. The marks are shown below and vary based on the rim model. So similar to Salomon XT series tongue graphics!

Note: I am not being paid by Mavic or Salomon although my friends at GHava designed Salomon’s website in the 1990s.