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How Salomon is celebrating everyone who shapes sport

Shaping New Futures by Salomon, France

Italy – Salomon is using its first official Winter Games partnership to launch Shaping New Futures, a long-term campaign signalling a shift towards proactively shaping a future of sport and culture that is accessible to everyone.

Curated with We Are Ona, the campaign deliberately moves attention away from podium finishes to spotlight the overlooked contributors who animate sport – from volunteers and grassroots organisers to creators and everyday movers. By designing uniforms for thousands of Winter Games volunteers and advancing initiatives such as its Adaptive Project for Para-athletes, Salomon reframes the Games as a participatory ecosystem.

The strategy extends into products, spanning elite lab-tested footwear through to gravel running gear for recreational explorers, reinforcing a spectrum of access points in performance culture.

The move reflects a wider recalibration in sports and lifestyle markets. As highlighted in our Future Forecast 2026 report, fitness culture is increasingly splitting between aspirational spectacle and attainable participation, creating opportunities for brands to engage consumers across the spectrum.

Strategic opportunity

Brands can balance heritage with evolving cultural moments by tracking how traditional events like The Olympic Games are evolving and using their values and storytelling to stay on the pulse of what matters

Streaming service Menta serves as a tool for dementia care

Photography by Cottonbro Studio via Pexels

Global – Menta, a secure streaming service developed between Istanbul and Amsterdam, is rethinking the role of tv in dementia care.

Now available on Apple TV, Android TV and the web, the platform offers calm and supportive content designed specifically for those living with dementia.

Mainstream television programming can often contain sensory triggers such as fast editing, sudden sound changes and complex storylines – which can increase anxiety, confusion and sensory overload.

Menta aims to address this, with a library that includes more than 2,000 minutes of slow-paced videos spanning nature therapy, gentle movement, nostalgic moments and everyday routines, all developed with expert guidance from neurologists, psychologists and dementia care specialists.

Positioned as a care-giving tool rather than an entertainment platform, Menta also provides an expert resource library addressing behavioural changes and sleep challenges for those caring for people with dementia.

Backed by the Turkish Alzheimer’s Association and a clinical advisory board, the service reframes the screen as part of the care environment, signalling growing demand for low-stimulation, regulation-led media.

In our Future Forecast 2026: Design report, we highlighted the rise of Feelingware – where emotional intelligence is embedded into everyday objects, reframing them as companions of care. Menta reflects this shift, repositioning the television as a regulatory, emotionally responsive element of the home environment.

Strategic opportunity

Design low-stimulation environments – from media and retail to automotive and hospitality – positioning calm, predictability and sensory regulation as premium value for ageing, neurodiverse and care-focused audiences

Stat: AI commerce trust gap widens at checkout across Asia-Pacific

AI Imagery by The Future Laboratory, UK

APAC – Visa has revealed a widening trust gap in AI commerce across Asia-Pacific, with consumers embracing AI for browsing but hesitating at checkout.

The State of Digital Commerce study, conducted by YouGov in September 2025, surveyed 14,764 consumers in 14 markets. While 74% said they use AI to discover and compare products, 45% said they would not complete a purchase without stronger security assurances and 32% remain unwilling to share payment credentials with AI systems.

Some 39% of affluent households earning above (£5,890 ($8,000, €6,755) a month show greater concern about data use compared to 29% of lower-income groups. Wariness is highest in digitally mature markets including Australia (38%), New Zealand (37%) and Singapore (34%).

Country differences are stark. India and Vietnam lead in openness, with 42% of consumers in each market willing to let AI complete transactions autonomously. By contrast, just 14% of consumers in Singapore and Japan express interest in AI-led purchases, while New Zealand records 16%.

‘The way people shop is changing quickly, with AI now playing a growing role in how consumers discover and choose products,’ said TR Ramachandran, head of products and solutions, Asia-Pacific, at Visa. ‘But as AI becomes part of the checkout experience, trust and control become even more important.’

Explore our reports, EQ-Commerce and The Synthocene Era, to understand how to successfully embed AI into your commerce journey and appeal to apprehensive consumers seeking trustworthy, transparent experiences.

Strategic opportunity

Make AI decision-making transparent by clearly explaining recommendations and optimisation factors, while strengthening visible, consumer-facing security measures such as passkeys and biometric authentication