L'Art de l'Automobile Puts Nubuck on the Salomon XT Quest 2

Salomon and L'Art de l'Automobile release the Salomon XT Quest 2 on October 28, a hiking shoe with a nubuck upper, a durable toe cap and a trail outsole. L'Art de l'Automobile, the Paris brand that grew out of a car studio, describes it in three words: mechanic walking shoes.

October 28. One Nubuck Hiker. Four Japanese Retailers.

The shoe is built on the XT Quest 2, Salomon's hiker that borrows from early 2000s trail design and adds current technology. Retail listings for the base model name a 4D Advanced Chassis for stability and a Contagrip outsole for traction, and the Japanese retail outlet Fullress describes the collaboration version in similar terms: early 2000s design, a nubuck upper with a durable toe cap in a traditional hiking style, and a bottom unit meant for trail traction and stability.

Fullress also lists where the pair will be sold in Japan: Rakuten, United Arrows, BEAMS online and H Beauty&Youth. Its date of October 28 matches L'Art de l'Automobile's own announcement, which makes two sources for the release, one of them the brand itself. No colorway name, retail price or global stockist list had been published by either source when this was written.

The XT Quest 2 is not a new silhouette. It has already had plain releases in Black/Ebony/Frost and Vanilla Ice/Rainy Day, and a 2023 version with The Broken Arm, the Paris shop, that sold through the store on March 2 and through Salomon on March 9. Putting L'Art de l'Automobile on it makes the shoe a canvas for a brand whose own line is cars.

L'Art de l'Automobile Has Been Working With Salomon Since 2022

The partnership dates to 2022. The second project came in June 2024, when the pair released the Speedcross 3 and the XT 4 OG as a tribute to the Porsche 911 GT1 that won Le Mans in 1998. The colors came from the French flag, gold touches echoed the car's BBS wheels, and the two insoles formed half of a race car illustration when set side by side.

In April 2026 the brand and Salomon went further with a racing inspired capsule of footwear and apparel, including racing apparel, warm up kits and technical accessories. The footwear paired the ACS Pro with the S/LAB Phantasm 3, a road running shoe with a wavy graphic on the upper meant to represent aerodynamic flow. The campaign drew on a Salomon documentary about developing the Phantasm 3, in which cars, elite runners and a goat were tested in a wind tunnel. Salomon's own pages describe that capsule as the third collaboration. That April capsule reached Salomon.com in a global launch on April 14, after a first sale on L'Art's own site.

Read in order, the projects move down the speed scale. A Le Mans winner, then a wind tunnel, then a walking shoe. Neither source frames the XT Quest 2 as a racing shoe; the pitch is about walking, which is a different customer from the one who buys a racing livery.

Two Leather Uppers on Lugged Soles in One Week

The release lands within days of another Salomon shoe that swaps mesh for a hide. The MM6 Maison Margiela Crossderby arrived October 22 as a black leather derby on a Mud Contagrip trail outsole with quickLACE closure, with a second MM6 drop set for November 17.

Neither pair is a runner. The Crossderby is a dress shoe on a trail sole and the XT Quest 2 is a hiker with a nubuck upper, and both treat the lugged outsole as a style signal that works off the mountain. The sole stays trail built and the upper moves toward leather, which in a single week is two data points and not yet a trend.

For L'Art de l'Automobile, the choice of a hiker fits a car brand dressing its own people. A walking shoe sold as a mechanic's shoe is meant for the garage floor and the paddock, and a nubuck upper with a toe cap is the part of the XT Quest 2 that suits that job.

The release is October 28. What the pair costs, which colors it arrives in and where outside Japan it will sit are the three facts neither the brand nor Salomon has put on the record yet.