On: How a Zurich Sneaker Conquered a Quiet City in 2026

Last updated: July 20, 2026.

When I counted shoes for my Bahnhofstrasse street style field report, one brand kept appearing on feet until it stopped being a coincidence: On, the Zurich sneaker with the hole-punched sole. That got me curious about the fuller story, because a shoe does not quietly colonise its home city’s pavements by accident. This is how three Swiss men, a sliced-up garden hose and an eventually-billionaire tennis player turned a strange-looking prototype into the fastest-rising name in global sportswear — and why Zurich wears it like a secret handshake.

It is also, in the most Zurich way possible, a story the city barely tells about itself. On is one of the biggest fashion-adjacent success stories Switzerland has produced in a generation, headquartered a tram ride from where I am writing this, and most locals wearing it could not tell you a word of its history. So here it is.

A garden hose, a retired champion, and a Zurich handshake

The On story begins with a frustrated athlete. Olivier Bernhard — a six-time Ironman winner and multiple world duathlon champion — retired and went hunting for a running shoe that felt genuinely different: soft on landing, firm on push-off. Working with a Swiss engineer friend, he did something faintly ridiculous. He glued sections of garden hose to the outsole of a prototype to see whether tubes that cushion on impact and stiffen on take-off could deliver that sensation. Absurd. It also worked.

Bernhard brought in two friends with the business half of the brain: Caspar Coppetti, his former agent, and David Allemann, who had deep marketing experience. In January 2010, the trio founded On in Zurich, each investing 150,000 dollars and agreeing to forfeit their shares if any of them took another job within three years — a commitment device pure enough to make a behavioural economist weep. One month after launch, the shoe won the ISPO BrandNew Award, the sport industry’s top innovation prize. By July 2010 the first pairs were on shop shelves. The name captured the feeling test-runners kept describing: being switched on, running on clouds.

The Federer turn that changed everything

For its first near-decade, On was a respected runners’ brand with a cult following and a European footprint. Then came the single most valuable handshake in recent Swiss business history. In 2019, Roger Federer — fresh from ending a two-decade apparel partnership with Nike — invested in On’s pre-IPO round and took an ownership stake reported at around three percent. He was not a paid face bolted on afterwards. He was an owner, a Zurich-region local backing a Zurich company, and he became genuinely involved in product, most visibly the Roger tennis line.

The timing was uncanny. On listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 under the ticker ONON, and the pandemic-era boom in running plus On’s move into everyday fashion did the rest. The reveal below is the part that still makes me laugh.

The figures are documented and slightly surreal. Forbes reported in 2025 that Federer had become a billionaire, with his On stake estimated at more than 375 million dollars; other analyses put it as high as 500 million. Either way, three percent of a Zurich shoe company out-earned one of the greatest tennis careers ever played. His initial investment is often cited around 50 million dollars — a roughly eight-to-tenfold return in about five years.

From garden hose to three billion dollars

The growth curve is the kind that makes analysts recheck their spreadsheets. On reported full-year 2024 net sales of CHF 2.32 billion and then guided 2025 sharply higher; by late 2025 it had raised its outlook toward roughly 34 percent constant-currency growth, pointing to full-year net sales of at least CHF 2.94 billion — about 3.3 billion dollars. The company that started with three men and 450,000 dollars now employs thousands and carries a market valuation reported in the high-teens of billions.

Here is the milestone table, so the arc is legible at a glance.

Why the shoe rules its home city

Now to the question that started all this: why does On feel so specifically dominant in Zurich? Part of it is simple hometown maths. Even before the global boom, On held around 40 percent of the running-shoe market in Switzerland, far above its share anywhere else. But the deeper reason is aesthetic, and it is the same instinct I keep writing about on this blog.

On is the perfect Zurich shoe because it is stealth-premium. It is expensive, engineered and quietly status-signalling — but to the untrained eye it just looks like a clean, neutral trainer. No loud logo, no hype-drop theatrics, no colour that announces itself across a tram platform. It is quiet luxury for the feet: you either recognise the CloudTec sole and know exactly what it cost, or you do not and see nothing remarkable. That is the entire Zurich dress code, rendered as a sneaker, which is why it slotted so seamlessly into the city’s street style.

There is also civic pride, even if Zurich would never call it that. Wearing On is a way of backing the home team without saying a word — the footwear equivalent of quietly knowing which local company just conquered New York. In a city that finds overt boasting slightly vulgar, a shoe that lets you signal success by looking plain is close to a perfect object.

The twist: your very Swiss sneaker is made in Vietnam

Here is the honest footnote that On’s marketing glides past, and that this blog will not. For all the “engineered in Switzerland” language, On is not Swiss Made clothing in the legal sense. The company has stated that around 90 percent of its shoes are sourced from Vietnam. Zurich is the brain — design, engineering, headquarters, brand — but the manufacturing is Asian, like almost all performance footwear.

I do not say that to knock On. It is exactly how a modern global shoe brand has to operate, and On is transparent about it. But it is a lovely illustration of the Swissness paradox I explored in my Swiss Made piece: a brand can be profoundly Swiss in identity, ownership and design while being manufactured entirely abroad. On sells Swiss engineering and a Zurich origin story. It does not, and legally could not, sell a Swiss-made shoe. Knowing that makes the “Born in the Swiss Alps” tagline read as poetry rather than provenance — which is fine, as long as you know which one you are buying.

What On says about modern Zurich

Put the whole story together and On is almost a parable of the city that made it. It began with obsessive engineering and an unglamorous idea, grew without shouting, dressed its ambition in neutral tones, won globally while staying tight-lipped at home, and quietly made a local legend richer than his day job ever could. Swap the shoe for silk or embroidery and you have told this city’s story three times over: Zurich excels, exports, and declines to boast about it.

So the next time you are on a Zurich tram and half the carriage is standing on those little hollow tubes, you will know you are looking at more than a comfortable sneaker. You are looking at the current chapter of a very old local habit — being quietly, expensively excellent, and letting the sole do the talking. If you want to see just how dominant it has become underfoot, the numbers are in my Bahnhofstrasse count, and the brand sits comfortably alongside the names in my guide to Swiss fashion worth knowing.

FAQ: On, the Zurich sneaker

Is On a Swiss company?

Yes. On Holding AG was founded in Zurich in 2010 and is still headquartered there, with design and engineering based in Switzerland. It listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 under the ticker ONON but remains Swiss in identity, ownership leadership and origin.

Are On shoes actually made in Switzerland?

No. While On is engineered and designed in Switzerland, the company has said around 90 percent of its shoes are manufactured in Vietnam. It is a Zurich brand rather than a Swiss-made product in the legal Swissness sense — a distinction worth understanding before you pay the premium.

What is On’s connection to Roger Federer?

Federer invested in On in 2019, before its stock market listing, taking an ownership stake reported at around three percent, and became closely involved with the brand and its tennis line. By 2025 that stake was estimated at 375 to 500 million dollars and had helped make him a billionaire — reportedly earning him more than his tennis prize money.

Why is On so popular in Zurich specifically?

Hometown loyalty plus perfect aesthetic fit. On held roughly 40 percent of the Swiss running-shoe market even early on, and its stealth-premium look — expensive and engineered but visually plain — matches Zurich’s quiet-luxury dress code exactly. It lets wearers signal quality without a loud logo.

What does CloudTec mean?

CloudTec is On’s patented cushioning system: the row of hollow tubes on the sole that compress on landing for a soft step and firm up for push-off. The concept traces back to founder Olivier Bernhard experimenting with sections of garden hose glued to a prototype outsole.