The On Revolution: how a Swiss brand is changing the running scene

I still remember the first time I came across the On logo. It was in the midst of the pandemic, in a CNBC YouTube video. I was embedded in a seemingly endless chain of compulsive binge-watching, dictated by enforced immobility, in which former Swiss Ironman and two-time triathlon world champion Olivier Bernhard explained how a start-up born in Zurich together with Caspar Coppetti and David Allemann had become a 7.5 billion dollar company in a very short space of time. Watching the video today makes it clear how it was a product of its time. A grainy Bernhard in his sleek office telling the story of how the brand was born, starting from an irrigation hose at early trade shows. As I checked my YouTube timeline, I realized how far back December 2021 was. A time when running was still more of an excuse to get out of the house and tech gear a disguise to escape restrictions. Now, almost four years later, running has among one of the most popular social gatherings of the post-pandemic era, a lifestyle that is more than a sport or a mere pastime.

It's a social network, a rebellion against the daily sedentariness that has turned first our hands and now our thumbs into our working tools. And On has not only embraced this change. It has shaped and interpreted it, entering the sportswear scene with an attitude that only revolutionaries can. And while many of its competitors are struggling mightily to break even on a quarterly basis, the Swiss brand only knows the plus sign in front of every number. In the first quarter of 2025, it recorded a profit of 726.6 million CHF, 43% more than in the same period last year. On has also raised its sales forecast for the current financial year to 2.86 billion CHF, 28% more than in 2024. To find out the secrets of this unexpected and tale-telling success, I took the train across the border between Italy and Switzerland, directed to the Zurich industrial area where the brand's Labs are located.

On stopped being this cultish, behind-the-counter secret, word-of-mouth whisper, if-you-know-you-know artisanal Swiss shop, and became the new revolution in sneaker religion. Alas, Zendaya also went to space with them (in a far more successful mission than the one of Katy Perry). Balancing between the brave new world design of its sneakers and the old sportswear's playbook, On is now a true force both in performance and lifestyle. More than getting the zeitgeist right, the company set their own rulebook, a live-or-die understanding that underlines their entire body of work. You can see the literal writings on the wall once you cross the entry of their 17-story facility in Zurich. Open up in 2022, this brutalist, new Nordic concrete monolith stands as a constant reminder of the vision, the ambition, and the utopia that fuelled this unstoppable growth. As you wander on the ground floor, you order a flat white without knowing it is the doorway to the fastest-rising company in sportswear. There is in fact no entry, no fancy plaque or emblem, no butler welcomes you in. The main space on the ground floor is a giant cafeteria where double-height windows shine a clear light on steel kitchen counters.

It is "Roots", a plant-based restaurant that shares the same way of thinking as On and that lays the roots for the rest of Labs' floors. The first three are called Earth, the next three Forest, followed by Lake, Mountain, and – finally – Sky. You go up and down a single path, like climbing through mountain of rough concrete. A vertical development in which the relationship between man and nature is constantly questioned and becomes the tension that shapes the rooms like an art gallery. “We always try to reinterpret nature through the human gesture,” they explain to us as we descend the exposed spiral staircase that connects the different levels of the building. Exhibits of this philosophy: a planter created from individual pot holders on the floor, a mummified alpine wind swept pine tree hanging above a conference room, a 3D-printed sofa as a hillside meadow, a perfect rectangle of rocks and stones transported directly from the Swiss Alps.

It is easy to see a direct link between the workplace and the brand identity, both dedicated to the constant search for performance and design. A space where emptiness means more than fullness, a physical synonym for On's patented sole - the CloudTec - in which the bareness carries the shoe's architecture, creating unexpected connections. Each level, made up of three floors, is designed so that the centre floor is for group activities, from meetings to lunch breaks, so that employees walk down or up the central staircase to meet or sometimes bump into each other. There is actually a lot of walking from On, a truism for a shoe brand, but it always gets you somewhere. Unsurprisingly, there are maps, diagrams, and even a sculpture moulded from hundreds of Strava routes, everywhere: this could also be another metaphor that explains the brand's achievements well. Indeed, one wonders how is it to work at On, between an Italian-designed sofa and a meeting room in a greenhouse, what secrets are hidden behind the sliding walls that turn a bookcase into an all-blue living room, and what kind of work-life balance can be maintained by taking trainers from a huge communal shoe cupboard and running to the nearby river during lunch breaks. And most importantly, how to simultaneously outperform every other sports brand.

“We have an in-house production system that allows us to make fast prototypes much faster than our competitors and test them immediately to see what works and what doesn’t. Our strategy is to fail early and often so that we learn as much as possible,” Jaime Garcia Romo, Footwear Product Manager at On, tells us as we sit on the sofas where Roger Federer announced his retirement from professional tennis. (Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the Tennis Goat himself invested in On in 2019) A very short supply chain that involves just a few floors, where every step happens organically in-house and then goes out into the world. Romo believes that a good running shoe is created in a collective process that takes into account feedback from everyone involved, from the professional athlete to the salesperson to the consumers. His latest project, the revolutionary LightSpray™ technology, is also based on turning natural technologies into human. A spiderweb modelled into a pattern by a mechanical arm kept in the On Labs in a single operation, creating one of the lightest shoe upper ever. The collaborative nature of On is also reflected in the decisions that led to the creation five years ago of the On Athletics Club (OAC), On’s professional athletics team consisting of athletes who run middle to long distances (from 800m to 10,000m).

To meet them, we have to take a different train, the one that connects Zurich with the OAC Europe high-altitude training base and known glamorous mountain resort in the Alps: Sankt Moritz. Where the socialite gathers every winter to ski and apres-ski, in the off-season it becomes the realm of long-distance runners who prepare for their racing by taking advantage of its altitude and tranquillity. The On Athletics Club was originally founded in Boulder, Colorado, but has expanded to Europe and Oceania in recent years and boasts increasingly large and well-known groups of athletes. Bodysuits in bright colours from emerald green to ochre yellow with geometric and digital patterns are now regularly seen on the world's tracks, forming an exclusive club of male and female athletes united by On's reflective logo. The coolest and fastest group on the track, ready to stand out through results and looks. Among the 15 athletes now gathered in St. Moritz are two Italian athletes, Ludovica Cavalli and Federico Riva, who tell me how become On athletes has changed their approach to training as they can't wait for their season to finally begin with the Golden Gala scheduled for 6 June in Rome.

“I'll be honest: when I spoke to my manager after the Olympic Games in Paris, the first thing I said was that I would only leave my old sponsor if there was an offer from On,” says Ludovica Cavalli, the latest addition to the OAC European team. “On it's a new brand made up of young people and I like the way they work. They have entered a world full of old sponsors with great work that is very rigorous. The On Athletics Club is so big, so perfect, with great attention to detail. And there are such strong guys from all over Europe that it's almost an honour to be part of it.” The healthy competition within the team pushes everyone to improve, and each athlete has been selected not only for their strength on the track, but also for how well he or she can stay and work within the group they share for weeks. The Brit runner Revee Walcott-Nolan will tell me later that the team is very close and beside the competition on the track everyone supports each other. The social role is also taken very seriously at On's athletes, and not just by those who work in Zurich.

In the gym overlooking the Engadine mountains, the clatter of rhythmic feet rumbles like a summer rain shower. A row of treadmills runs quickly under rubber soles, bouncing lightly and rhythmically side by side. As I enter the main hall, one group is getting ready while the second is already warming up. The air is cool and fresh, thin enough to improve aerobic endurance. The mood is that of a relaxed school trip, although the commitment to preparation is stretched to the limit. Coach Thomas Dreissigacker circles between the athletes, incourage them, but also takes time to answer a few questions about the preparation methodology and how this feedback system can improve the athlete and the coach work both. “You really learn every day. You learn from every athlete, because everyone is different, every athlete is an individual. So it's not like you can apply a one-size-fits-all model. Every day you learn a few different things from each athlete and use them to improve, understand the athlete better and get the best out of them". In the afternoon, everyone heads to the outdoor track around the city's lake before splitting up into their respective activities: cool down, strength training and tempo runs.

Following the runners on their favourite terrain as they float on the damp soil caused by a lightly falling rain, a part of me is taken aback to the On headquarter I explored just a few hours earlier. On one side, the triumph of human ingenuity, its technical application; on the other, the perfection of nature, the golden geometry of evolution. In between lies the continuous work that transforms the natural into the human and the technical into the organic. That second nature that On has made his philosophy of creation. In the space between idea and action is the simplest and most primal gesture that separates man from his predecessors, taking one step after another as quickly and efficiently as possible. It is no coincidence that On has managed to create such a successful brand – in such a short time – precisely in running, through the very causes that have made it indispensable on the evolutionary ladder. The need for direct connections, the circularity of the resources used, movement as a proprioception of the self, space in a direct relationship with time, and bridging the gap that separates the earth from the sky. Sometimes the simplest processes can lead to the most surprising results.