Brand focus ON
What do you get when you cross a Swiss engineer with a champion runner? A shoe brand with the ingenuity – and audacity – to take on a hugely competitive market. That’s what On did in 2010, with the launch of the its first shoe, the Cloudsurfer. Now, three million people wear On shoes. ‘Everybody who tried our prototypes said, “Wow, this is special!”’ says co-founder Caspar Coppetti. ‘ We realised that if people could feel the difference in the technology we had a chance of converting them from conventional running shoes to On.’
After retiring from sport, three-time world duathlon champion, and fellow co-founder Olivier Bernhard applied himself to designing his perfect running shoe. ‘My vision was of a shoe that didn’t control or correct a runner’s motion but supported it,’ he says. He crossed paths with a retired engineer who had an idea for a technology that would do just that. ‘The concept was a shoe that offered a cushioned landing and a firm takeoff.’ The duo, along with the third co-founder, David Allemann, came up with Cloud technology.
Rubber ‘clouds’ on the outsole cushion landing, but then lock to provide a springboard for a powerful take- off.
On shoes are now stocked in 3,000 stores in more than 50 countries. ‘People feel the difference when they step into an On,’ says Bernhard.