Merrell 1TRL has just offered an exclusive peek behind the scenes at the Merrell archive, and it’s mega.
A gang of footwear nerds at the brand’s HQ have raided the vault, fired up the scanners and made themselves busy to produce scrapbook-style images of all the most important Merrell silhouettes in the last fifty years. There’s stuff detailed in here that we had no clue about, like the Flashdance – a pair of climbing shoes that look straight out of Back to the Future, if Marty McFly traded the half-pipe for Half Dome.
The old catalogues, sketches, and never-publicly-seen-before design elements have allowed Merrell 1TRL to proudly show the references that have inspired their SS25 collection. It’s sort of like gaining access to the hard drive of the world’s biggest Merrell superfan. Something that we’ve daydreamed about many, many times.
Also, not that we needed reminding, but these images quickly reaffirm that Merrell has been quietly nailing technical design for years, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Moab. The iconic sole has featured time and time again in Merrell history, and after hefty amounts of research, tweaking, and real-world battering, it’s still standing strong. No surprise then that it’s still the foundation for three new 1TRL models this season.
Another standout model from the archive images, rather ironically, is Merrell’s Chameleon. True to its name, the Chameleon has always been slightly different, persistently tweaking looks & sharpening performance. SS25 sees the release of the Chameleon-inspired Cham Redux, a highly capable, very tasty-looking low hiker.
There’s plenty of good stuff in these images, and if you enjoy nerding out about old outdoor gear as much as we do, looking at them sort of feels like how Christmas felt when you were six years old. Intoxicating, thrilling and just generally special. Is that a bit of a sad analogy? Probably.
Anyway, gorge your eyeballs at the images below, and if you fancy looking at Merrell 1TRL’s SS25 collection, you can do that here.
