On doesn’t want to be the next Nike—and it’s working

On Running has hit 2025 at full speed, reporting Q1 earnings on Tuesday that saw the company grow sales by 43% year-over-year. 

It’s a reflection of the overall growth trajectory the Zurich-based athletic lifestyle brand has been on since it launched in 2010. With a healthy direct-to-consumer business, growing retail footprint (with 53 stores around the world), and cutting edge product innovation, On has built its brand around its product quality and sleek, simple design. 

But cofounder and executive cochairman Caspar Coppetti says that despite the healthy numbers, the brand still has plenty of room to grow, and it’s using its own unique combination of culture and athletics to do it. 

“Our global brand awareness last year was only 20%, while Nike is at 95%,” says Coppetti. “We’re not trying to be the next Brand X or Brand Y. We’re writing our own script, and that script is: We want to be the most premium brand in sports, really elevating the whole brand experience.”

Premium culture

Every athletic shoe company has its own approach to building out its audience. Nike has recently rejuvenated its swagger aimed at competitive athletes; Adidas has leaned on big names like Patrick Mahomes, Jude Bellingham, and Anthony Edwards; and Hoka is going all-in on runners.

On, meanwhile, has built its brand around a unique combination of innovative design and elevated fashion sense.

“That’s something we’ve always had in the brand,” says Coppetti says. It began with its foundational cushioning technology, Cloudtech, an engineered solution to absorb impact that looked distinct from any other sneaker. That was combined with a Swiss design ethos that’s very reductionist and clean. “Our products always look different and also quite fashionable,” says Coppetti. “And when performance and fashion collide, that’s when magic happens.”

This year, the brand took that magic in some compelling directions. While some athletic brands have steered toward competition and the athlete mentality, On’s brand work went in a different, pretty damn quirky direction. 

In February, On dropped a Super Bowl ad featuring Roger Federer and Sesame Street’s Elmo debating the brand’s logo. Subsequent spots in the “Soft Wins” campaign had Elmo talking about running for fun as opposed to competitive fire. 

Then in April, the brand launched a trailer for a fake sci-fi movie starring Zendaya (who signed as a brand ambassador last year) to hype its new lifestyle bodysuit. With a new FKA Twigs partnership inked earlier this year, On has squarely positioned itself as the workout gear of choice for people who care about art and style.

In its Q1 earnings report, On credited its Zendaya partnership as one of the driving forces of the brand’s impressive momentum. 

“These kinds of things have the potential to go viral,” says Coppetti. “Consumers are also not seeing us as just another brand shoving advertising in their face, but seeing that it’s actually kind of cute and clever, and that resonates.”

Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, the brand is looking to open 25 more stores around the world, and continue to hype it’s Lightspray shoe technology, and its expanding apparel line. Coppetti says that the challenge is to make sure people see On as a head-to-toe brand, as opposed to just sneakers. 

“Now we’re expanding our market share from the feet up.”

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