Salomon XT-4 OG 'Year of the Snake — Red Viper' (L47847000) — Limited Lunar New Year Edition Trail Collector Sneaker

What Is the Salomon XT-4 OG ‘Year of the Snake — Red Viper’?

The Salomon XT-4 OG ‘Year of the Snake — Red Viper’ (Style Code: L47847000) is the most culturally specific and calendrically anchored release in today’s full lineup — a limited Lunar New Year edition built on the XT-4 OG archival trail platform, designed for the Year of the Snake (乙巳年) that began on 29 January 2025. It brings together three specific propositions: the XT-4 OG’s archival status (the original-generation XT platform restored to its purest form), the Chinese zodiac’s Snake symbolism (wisdom, precision, and controlled power — qualities whose Eastern traditional meaning differs fundamentally from the Western religious construction of the serpent), and the Red Viper colorway (deep crimson and black, the specific palette of the viper’s most dangerous and precisely intentioned expression). At $149, the Year of the Snake Red Viper is the highest-priced XT-4 OG in today’s lineup — its cultural specificity, limited release positioning, and chromatic intensity justifying the premium over the standard XT-4 OG colorways. Unisex, US M4–M11 / W5–W12 / EU 36–45.

Quick Facts

• Brand: Salomon (Annecy, France — est. 1947)
• Platform: XT-4 OG — original-generation archival trail platform, distinct from current XT-6
• Style Code: L47847000
• Edition: Year of the Snake (乙巳年) — Lunar New Year 2025, begins 29 January 2025
• Colorway: Red Viper — deep crimson + black, viper-inspired palette
• Midsole: EnergyCell — responsive EVA cushioning
• Outsole: Contagrip — multi-surface rubber compound
• Lacing: Quicklace — single-pull lacing system
• Gender: Unisex
• Sizing: US M4–M11 / W5–W12 / EU 36–45
• Price: $149
• Category: Lunar New Year Edition / Archival Trail / Collector
• Fit: True to size; size up half for thicker trail socks

Specs & Technologies

The XT-4 OG Platform — The Archival Generation

The XT-4 OG is not the current-generation XT-4: the ‘OG’ designation marks this as the original-generation silhouette, restored and produced in its archival form rather than updated to current specifications. The XT-4 is an earlier chapter in Salomon’s XT trail platform lineage — predating the XT-6, carrying the outsole geometry, upper proportions, and midsole construction of its original generation rather than the refined specifications of the current XT flagship. In today’s full lineup, the XT-4 OG sits alongside the XT-6 as the archival complement to the current platform: where the XT-6 represents Salomon’s current trail-to-lifestyle cultural icon, the XT-4 OG represents the generation that preceded it, carrying the design decisions of an earlier moment in Salomon’s history with the authenticity of a shoe that has been exactly this way from the beginning rather than evolved to its current state. For the Year of the Snake edition, the XT-4 OG’s archival status adds a dimension of temporal resonance: a shoe that is itself a form of memory and heritage, carrying a cultural-calendar release whose significance is also rooted in a cyclical tradition of 12-year repetition.

The Year of the Snake — Chinese Zodiac Symbolism and Why It Matters for This Release

The Chinese zodiac’s Snake (蛇) is the sixth of the twelve animal signs, governing years in a 60-year cycle of stem-branch combinations. The Year of the Snake most recently began on 29 January 2025 (乙巳年 — Yi Si year). Within the zodiac’s symbolic framework, the Snake carries attributes that are specific and distinct from both the Western religious construction of the serpent (temptation, deceit, the Fall) and the common Western casual association with danger or threat. In the Chinese tradition, the Snake is the sign of wisdom, intuition, and elegant precision: a creature that achieves its goals through perception and exactly timed action rather than through force or pursuit, that moves with complete efficiency of motion, that strikes with absolute precision when it acts and is entirely still when it does not. The Snake is the most interior of the zodiac’s animals — the sign of deep thinking, of reading situations with accuracy before acting, of knowing when to move and when to remain coiled and patient. These qualities map onto a specific kind of athletic and aesthetic aspiration: not aggressive maximalism, but precise, controlled, and exactly timed excellence. The Snake does not chase; it positions. It does not overpower; it places its action exactly where it needs to be. For a trail-running shoe release, these attributes describe a kind of performance relationship — a relationship with terrain and movement that is precise and efficient rather than forceful — that gives the Year of the Snake edition its conceptual coherence.

The ‘Red Viper’ Colorway — The Palette of Precise Danger

Viper is a specific taxonomic category within the snake family: the Viperidae, a family of venomous snakes characterized by long, hinged fangs that fold flat against the palate when the mouth is closed and deploy only at the moment of strike. Vipers are not constrictors: they kill through venom, delivered with precision through the fangs at the moment of strike, and their relationship with their prey is one of exact positioning and instantaneous action rather than prolonged force. The Viper is the Snake’s most precise and most purely danger-coded member. Red Viper takes the Snake’s attributes and maximizes their visual intensity: the deep crimson of the Red Viper palette is the specific red of biological danger signals — in nature, vivid red on an animal is often aposematic, meaning it signals to predators and observers that the animal is toxic or dangerous. This is not the warm, celebratory red of Chinese New Year’s lucky red envelopes (Hong Bao) — it is a darker, more saturated, more specifically dangerous red: deep crimson, with the density of pigment that signals not celebration but warning. Paired with black — the color of the viper’s shadow, of the absence of light in which a coiled snake is invisible until it moves — the Red Viper palette is the most visually intense and most specifically coded danger-palette in today’s full Salomon lineup. The Chinese zodiac’s elegant Snake attributes and the Viper’s precise biological danger coding are not contradictions: they are the same creature’s two aspects — the interior wisdom and the exterior precision, the stillness and the strike.

EnergyCell vs. Energy Cell+ — The Midsole Distinction

The XT-4 OG uses EnergyCell — the original EVA-based cushioning compound from Salomon’s trail running heritage. The current XT-6 uses Energy Cell+, a refined iteration with improved rebound characteristics. The difference is part of what makes the XT-4 OG archival: its EnergyCell midsole is the cushioning technology of the shoe’s original generation, authentic to the platform’s historical specifications rather than updated to current standards. Buyers who want the exact ride character of the original XT-4 generation — rather than the modernized Energy Cell+ experience of the XT-6 — are getting that here.

XT-4 OG in Today’s Lineup — Archival Platform, Cultural Edition Context

The Year of the Snake Red Viper is the XT-4 OG at its most culturally and chromatically specific — a limited release whose meaning is anchored to a precise calendrical moment and whose palette is the most intentionally coded in the platform’s current range.

Sizing — Unisex Conversion Table (Men’s / Women’s / EU)

This shoe uses men’s / unisex sizing. Women typically size down 1 size from their women’s US size (e.g., women’s US 8 → men’s US 7 / EU 40). True to size. Size up half for thicker trail socks.

Who Is the Salomon XT-4 OG ‘Year of the Snake — Red Viper’ For?

Three profiles: the Lunar New Year cultural collector who engages with Chinese zodiac release culture and wants the specific 2025 Snake year Salomon piece — a shoe whose meaning is calendrically anchored to a 12-year cycle and whose cultural reference is the Snake’s specific zodiac attributes of wisdom, precision, and elegant controlled power rather than Western serpent symbolism; the Red Viper chromatic buyer who wants the most intensely coded danger-palette in today’s full lineup — the deep crimson of biological aposematic warning, paired with black, in the most visually precise and dramatic red-black combination in the range; and the XT-4 OG archival collector who wants the original-generation XT-4 platform in its most limited and culturally specific release form — the Year of the Snake edition as the rarest and most contextually meaningful XT-4 OG in today’s range.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the style code?
A: L47847000.

Q: What year is ‘Year of the Snake’?
A: The most recent Year of the Snake is 乙巳年 (Yi Si year), which began on 29 January 2025. The Snake is the sixth animal in the 12-year Chinese zodiac cycle; the next Year of the Snake will be 2037.

Q: What does the Snake represent in the Chinese zodiac?
A: Wisdom, intuition, and elegant precision — the Snake is the zodiac’s most interior sign, associated with deep perception, reading situations accurately before acting, and striking with exact precision when the moment is right. This is distinct from the Western religious construction of the serpent (temptation, the Fall) and from casual danger associations. In Eastern tradition, the Snake is a sign of intellectual and intuitive excellence.

Q: What color is ‘Red Viper’?
A: Deep crimson and black. The red is specifically the dark, saturated crimson of biological danger signaling (aposematic coloration) rather than the bright celebratory red of Chinese New Year’s lucky red (Hong Bao). Paired with black — the absence of light, the color of the viper’s shadow — the two tones create the most intensely coded danger palette in today’s full Salomon lineup.

Q: How is the XT-4 OG different from the XT-6?
A: The XT-4 OG is an earlier archival generation of Salomon’s XT trail platform, restored to its original specifications — including EnergyCell midsole (vs. Energy Cell+ on the XT-6). It carries the design decisions of an earlier moment in Salomon’s history, valued for its archival authenticity rather than current platform specifications.

Q: Is this true to size?
A: Yes. Size up half for thicker trail socks. Women should size down approximately 1 size from their women’s US size (e.g., women’s US 8 → men’s US 7 / EU 40).