Swiss brand On scales up robotics and design to take on Nike and Adidas

A robot leg builds a nearly finished £300 sports shoe as On, the Swiss sportswear brand, leans on high-tech manufacturing and fashion collaborations to expand against giants such as Nike and Adidas. The company, which teamed up with Roger Federer and works with partners including LOEWE, Zendaya, FKA twigs and Burna Boy, is opening a fourth London store in Kensington as it grows sales in China, the US and mainland Europe.

On was founded by David Allemann, Caspar Coppetti and Olivier Bernhard after the trio invested about £600,000 of savings and began selling at running meets. The business floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 at a value of $8bn, raising almost $750m; the brand is now worth $16bn and expects to sell 30m pairs this year.

On says sales are on track to rise by just over a third to nearly 3bn Swiss francs, and it estimates it controls about 1% of the $450bn global sportswear market while grabbing as much as a fifth of the running shoe market in the UK and some other European countries. Technical innovation sits at the core of On’s strategy.

The company developed LightSpray flying fibre technology after funding a designer’s idea, and its Cloudboom Strike LS laceless shoe is made by nine robots in Zurich. Most footwear is still produced in Asia, but On plans to open its first robot-led factory this year, with the location undecided and a long-term aim of manufacturing on every continent.

Key Topics

Business, On, Zurich, Kensington, David Allemann, Lightspray