--- title: "How a Shoe With Holes in It Became a $3.7 Billion Business in Six Years" description: "On opened its Zurich headquarters to the press to explain how hoses, holes and Mbappé made it a cultural phenomenon" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-09-28T18:14:20Z modified: 2026-09-29T03:23:16Z url: https://rews.cc/a/how-a-shoe-with-holes-in-it-became-a-3-7-billion-business-in-6934f4 language: en tags: ["fashion", "sports", "innovation", "adidas", "nike", "business"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # How a Shoe With Holes in It Became a $3.7 Billion Business in Six Years *On opened its Zurich headquarters to the press to explain how hoses, holes and Mbappé made it a cultural phenomenon* By Nate Ledger · September 28, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/how-a-shoe-with-holes-in-it-became-a-3-7-billion-business-in-6934f4 ## In brief - On’s revenue grew from 267 million Swiss francs in 2019 to 3.014 billion (about $3.67 billion) in 2025 - The brand announced a deal with Kylian Mbappé, who left Nike after 20 years, and works with Zendaya, Loewe and shareholder Roger Federer - Founder Olivier Bernhard built the first sole prototype by gluing pieces of hose together; On was founded in 2010 - The LightSpray shoe is sprayed from a single 1,500-meter strand by a robotic arm in about three minutes - Co-CEO Coppetti says price is not a limiting factor because customers will pay for high-performance footwear If you have recently noticed athletic shoes with unsettling holes in the sole, you are not imagining an epidemic. In a few short years, the Swiss brand On has gone from being little known outside the sports world to a cultural phenomenon that extends well beyond running. Its latest headline-making move came last week, when it announced a deal with Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé, who walked away from Nike after 20 years of collaboration. On already works regularly with luxury house Loewe, with superstar Zendaya, and with former tennis world number one Roger Federer, who liked the brand so much he became a shareholder. That is a reasonably complete list of the categories of celebrity, if you think about it: the athlete, the actress, the fashion house and, as a kind of senior statesman, Federer. The income statement puts numbers on the phenomenon. The company had revenue of 267 million Swiss francs (about $325 million) in 2019; six years later it had multiplied that roughly 11-fold, generating 3.014 billion francs (about $3.67 billion) in 2025. In Spain the craze is more recent, according to the retail chain JD Sports: “In 2023, we began to notice an increase in interest among our customers, and it was in 2024 that sales growth became truly remarkable.” It all started with an offbeat idea. Swiss athlete Olivier Bernhard built a prototype sole by gluing pieces of hose together — the origin of the famous holes — and teamed up with Caspar Coppetti and David Allemann, who are now, both of them, the company’s CEOs. On was founded in 2010. “At first the users were us,” Coppetti recalls. “We started this company because we wanted a product we could use to run better.” Some of those early models are on display at the Zurich headquarters, which this summer opened its doors to the press for the first time, with El PAÍS the only Spanish outlet invited. The main building is 17 storeys tall and functions as a visual metaphor: the company moved in only four years ago, occupied the lower floors, and has already climbed to the 15th. They expect it will soon be too small. The mechanism of the business, though, is more interesting than the lobby. Start with the athletes. Bernhard says the partnerships go beyond traditional sponsorship money: “We also support them with a program that handles issues such as nutrition or sleep, and we help with matters like insurance or taxes. That removes a lot of daily stress. When I was a triathlete I didn’t have these things.” In exchange On gets something like a research department that brings its own problems.“When people think of innovation they tend to think of the final product,” says Jaime García Romo, head of product innovation for athletes, “but when runners come here they don’t ask for a shoe. They ask for a faster run, for legs that don’t get tired… so the process starts further back.” As he says this, one of those athletes runs on a monitored treadmill wired to electrodes that measure everything from speed to oxygen consumption, stride rebound and energy return. That is how they calibrate the sole: too hard and it is uncomfortable, too soft and it absorbs energy, so they test until they find the combination that best propels each stride. And when they find an improvement, some models can be rebuilt basically downstairs. The LightSpray design, introduced at the Paris Olympics, is made from a single 1,500-meter strand that a robotic arm sprays directly onto the sole; in three minutes a new shoe is ready. Production is currently split between a factory in South Korea and the Swiss laboratory. “It’s a lightweight structure, seamless and without superfluous material. It’s winning marathons and gold medals,” says Allemann. “We’re also reinventing production: we can install factories here or elsewhere; wherever demand arises we can meet it quickly and flexibly.” On registered 200 patents last year alone. But patents don’t fully explain an 11-fold jump, and the founders are candid that the wind was behind them. “In recent years a new type of consumer has emerged: the generation of movement,” Allemann says. “We’ve moved from wanting to own goods to investing in experiences. Health and longevity are the new wealth… Sports gear has shifted from functionality to identity.” Meanwhile the incumbents are stuck balancing the general public against technical credibility — and laboring under their own history. “Unlike our competitors we don’t have an archive to resurrect; we create everything from scratch,” says Coppetti. There is a real corporate advantage in never having made anything good decades ago: nobody asks you to reissue it. None of this is cheap, and On is not pretending otherwise. The company’s view is essentially that high prices are the business model, not the obstacle to it: > Cost is not a limiting factor; our followers are willing to pay high prices for high-performance footwear, so we can invest in technology. That is Coppetti, and the logic has a neat circularity: the premium funds the R&D that justifies the premium. In the 2010s aspirational spending ran through streetwear — Supreme, Off-White, Yeezy; after the pandemic, something subtler took hold, and the wavy sole became a status signal that did not always announce itself as one. JD Sports reports that in Spain the shoes first caught on with women in their thirties and forties looking for footwear to go walking with friends, with younger male customers following gradually. Which is to say the performance technology is real, but a decent share of it is being walked to brunch. “We have an obsession,” says Bernhard, “that every product be exceptional.” Whether a company can keep a flat-hierarchy, every-idea-counts culture while expanding up a 17-storey tower 11-fold is the open question. The shoes, at least, have holes in them on purpose.