The Swiss Sneaker Brand Outrunning Nike and Adidas

It’s the kind of high praise most brands would kill for, and in On’s (the Swiss sneaker brand) case it’s been a decade-and-a-half in the making. In the late 2010s, Nike Inc. helped spur the current running shoe revival with the introduction of its carbon-plated racing shoes. But then it and Adidas AG soon stumbled after leaning too heavily into fashion rather than performance. Nike only compounded its problems by pulling many of its sneakers out of retailers—especially stores that cater to serious runners—hoping to juice profits by selling directly to the masses.

Which left an opening for an upstart brand like On just as running culture was peaking and nonrunners were hungry to discover the next hip shoe that wouldn’t destroy their feet. In the past three years, the US running shoe market has ballooned by 20%, to $7.4 billion as of October, according to market researcher Circana LLC, with only 43% of buyers using those shoes for exercise. The running shoe market is expected to keep growing faster than the rest of footwear, both in terms of people buying the products and the average selling prices of the sneakers.

On, which is based in Zurich and run by five partners with an earnest management philosophy rooted in “Swiss democracy,” brought in about $2.5 billion in sales in 2024. That 30% year-over-year growth is impressive, but it’s still a long way from Adidas’ nearly $25 billion or Nike’s almost $50 billion in annual revenue. Despite the brand seeming to appear everywhere from sidewalks to supermarkets to trading floors, On still has only about a 2% share of the global athletic footwear market.  Currently, Wall Street analysts expect On to bring in $10 billion in annual sales by 2033, a milestone that neither Lululemon Athletica Inc. nor Puma SE—despite its 77 years of experience—has ever reached.

The company’s challenge is to maintain its momentum as it grows, while not losing its street cred among athletes. The sports world is littered with brands—think Reebok and Under Armour—that failed to make this transition. Now On, whose stated ambition is to become the “most premium global sportswear brand,” is trying to pull every lever: entering more countries, building up its own sales channels, expanding beyond running, selling $450 puffer jackets and $150 T-shirts and enlisting celebrity brand ambassadors such as Zendaya and FKA twigs. And, of course, figuring out how to bring to market the next multibillion-dollar sneaker technology to dazzle the public’s feet the way it’s managed to do with its CloudTec cushioning.