Just 15 years ago, On was a new entrant in a sneaker market filled with several established competitors: Nike, Adidask, and Hoka. But the company’s new shoes – recognizable by their base that looks like a layer of hollow gravel – won hearts as more sports fans discovered them.
Today, the Swiss company has reached a record high in sales, worth more than that 700 million dollars, Through the third quarter of 2024, it continues to rethink every aspect of how sneakers are made.
Traditionally, shoes are Exquisite stitching And several hours of human labor. But earlier this year, On did something that could shake up trends in the shoe industry. It debuted a shoe made in three minutes by spraying fabric material onto a mold of a foot with the help of a robotic arm. Oh, and it doesn’t have laces either.
Take a moment to process that.
David Aleman, On’s co-founder, attributes the Zurich-based company’s success and ability to attract people in a market full of brand-loyal buyers to something relatively simple.
“On is really an innovative brand that is all about radical innovation where you have to go crazy,” he said. luck In an interview conducted on the sidelines of a fashion business conference this week.
The beginning set the tone: Olivier Bernhard, one of On’s founders, first put his friends on a shoe that had hose pieces in the sole for extra cushioning, inspiring the design of CloudTec.
About four years ago, On met Johannes Voelchert, a student who makes Halloween-like hot glue sprays and who creates fake cobwebs to create new products at Milan Design Week.
“We said, ‘Hey, that sounds crazy.’ Aleman said, ‘Let’s do it.’” And so, he brought on the foilshirt. on board It gave him the time and investment to develop his idea and test it on a larger scale.
The product gained great confidence when Helen Obiri, a Kenyan athlete, won the Boston Marathon and the Paris Olympics with On’s LightSpray shoes.
“We had a hunch (that) this is a very old industry in terms of how shoes are made,” Aleman said, adding that the shoes are ultimately meant to deliver performance. With a smooth exterior, On’s latest shoe is also much lighter.
“Everyone is also excited because it greatly simplifies the entire manufacturing process, so you don’t have to ship parts. You can also eventually do close support. So, there’s a lot of promise.”
The sprayed shoes are now available in some stores, costing just over $300 apiece. But they’re only available in limited quantities, creating a new hurdle for On before they can truly declare the shoe a success.
On has “a lot of work to do to scale up” the new spray technology, mainly because fewer robotic arms are available, Aleman said. How runners respond to and use the new shoe will determine Aon’s ability to build on his innovations.
Choose on
According to Alleman, who worked at a furniture design brand and worked as a consultant before founding On, people gravitated to the Zurich-based brand organically — with little intervention. Although headquartered in Switzerland, the company has had a global mindset since day one, sourcing two-thirds of its business from the United States.
When the company secured the backing of tennis legend Roger Federer in 2019, it was after they noticed he was wearing On gear. Partnership I flourished Federer soon invested an undisclosed sum in exchange for a 3% stake in the company.
In the case of Obiri, who has seen recent success with On’s latest innovation, the company gave her the shoe for training but then chose to run her races in it.
Signing on as a new brand ambassador, Zendaya, was also serendipitous. I first came across her sneakers while filming the movie “Challengers” and she was like that hooked them after that.
“We were a discovered brand from the beginning. So we didn’t have a lot of marketing money,” Aleman said. “It was largely a word-of-mouth movement.”
This may seem old-fashioned, but it works. There was also no scarcity Of cooperationincluding one that On launched with Loewe, a high-end fashion brand owned by LVMH.