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Several favorable characteristics of innovation can be singled out:

 – the relative advantage over previous solutions;

 – compatibility with existing values and practices;

 – simplicity and ease of use;

 – trialability or possibility of testing the innovation;

 – finally, the observability of the results obtained.

Salomon’s arrival on the ski market in the 1990s, through a strategy of innovation (Desbordes 1998, 2001), is thus interpreted in the light of an organized rationality, centered on these factors of success: advantageous technological breakthrough for the skier, compatibility with the current practice of skiing, “visibilization” of the innovation, progressive marketing to validate the trialability, etc. The widespread uptake of the monocoque ski was described as a “snowball” effect, with users confined to the role of successive adopters, starting with champions, expert skiers, high-end customers and then regular skiers. Conversely, Trabal (2008) reveals the effects of social resistance to innovation within the French canoeing federation: a new form of competition kayak, technically optimal, was not taken up because it was not compatible with what certain key actors in the system (the first adopters: coaches, elite athletes) perceived as technical progress.