Swiss shoe firm On—one of many fastest-growing footwear manufacturers—has carried out very properly for itself, rising right into a $3 billion firm on the large puffy soles of its very garish footwear. As we speak, the corporate introduced three new kicks and the opening of a brand new manufacturing plant in South Korea that can make many, many extra—at the very least, that’s the aim.
Particularly, the corporate is specializing in the manufacturing of its latest, weirdest shoe—an enormous soled laceless operating shoe with a single-piece toe field made from “hyper-foam” plastics sprayed on by robotic arms. The plastics are 40 % biofoam, and the shoe is made from simply eight items; On says its minimalist method saves on the shoe’s carbon footprint.
The LightSpray Cloudmonster 3 Hyper is a switch-up from On’s first shoe that makes use of its sprayed-on toe field approach, the Cloudboom Strike LS. Together with including the LightSpray branding to the factor, the first distinction is the change to the Cloudmonster mannequin, which, in On shoe lore, tends to supply extra soft soles. This new model has 20 % extra foam, for all these runners who like a squishy bounce. They’ll have a restricted launch on the corporate’s web site and retail shops in North America beginning March 5, with a world enlargement on April 16.
The brand new LightSpray footwear weigh 205 grams apiece (lower than half a pound), which places them a little bit heavier than the 170-gram Cloudboom Strikes. They’re additionally cheaper at $280 versus the Cloudboom’s heftier $330 value.
Whereas WIRED appreciated the first iteration of the LightSpray shoe, no person else, aside from a number of hand-picked marathon runners, had an opportunity to make use of it. Manufacturing runs have been very restricted, and the footwear have been prohibitively costly. Now, On has beefed up manufacturing in South Korea, enabling it to increase its total manufacturing of LightSpray footwear 30-fold in 2026.
“On’s technique to increase the LightSpray expertise from racing to trainers is to make it accessible to a broader viewers past elite athletes,” an On consultant tells WIRED through e mail.
Whether or not laceless, slip-on footwear are going to search out their gait within the shoe market is not a profitable thought but. Whereas manufacturers like Nike provide slip-ons, the laceless fixation tends to be reserved for one-off footwear just like the Again to the Future II-inspired Adapt BB self-lacing footwear. Some critical runners desire the pursuit of a extra pure run supplied by slim-soled footwear like barefoot footwear, however On continues to be doubling down on its doubly huge cushions. Individuals appear to love them, as On can also be saying two different Cloudmonster footwear. One is the laced-up Cloudmonster 3, and the opposite is an everyday ol’ Cloudmonster 3 Hyper with laces and a non-LightSprayed toe field. (Ugh, laces. How passé.)
On says it has the additional strategic aim of scaling up its world manufacturing of the LightSpray footwear, “throughout the subsequent few years.”
