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While only 14 years old, On Running has exploded onto the scene, breaking through the stronghold of competitors and becoming one of the most popular running sneakers in the world. Can it pull off big promises around sustainability at the same clip?
At its headquarters in Zurich, environmental principles are visible on the surface: recycling, solar-powered electricity and a community garden are all fixtures of the several-floor compound, and biking, walking and even swimming to work are norms for employees. When it comes to the product, however, those goals are not as simple to execute — footwear has been relatively stagnant in reducing its environmental impacts, largely because of the need for technical performance and a lack of eco-friendly solutions to provide it.
Then there’s the issue of growth, the pursuit of which is one of the key obstacles to sustainability in the fashion industry at large. On’s current rapid-growth period seems at risk of negating the benefits of any product-level sustainability efforts it may have underway.
Begüm Kürkçü, global director of sustainability at On, says the company is up for the challenge of growing product sales while reducing its footprint alongside. “Our impact is getting bigger because we are going to produce more products [and] sell more products. That’s why there’s a heavy focus on how we can reduce our impact per product,” says Kürkçü, adding that the brand’s main impact comes from materials and processes, so she feels bringing the focus there internally will help them achieve overall-impact-reduction goals.
From 2022 to 2023, On reported that net sales increased by 46.6 per cent to CHF 1.8 billion ($2 billion), which is in no small part thanks to a 45.5 per cent growth in apparel profits — the brand placed a major focus on the division by hiring Belgium fashion designer Tim Coppens in 2022. At On, Coppens is responsible for a shift into the luxury sportswear space with a popular Loewe collaboration. “The level of how we look at materials, whether it’s [at] the lower price point or the higher, it’s still made with the intention to last,” says Coppens.
But when the most sustainable thing to do is produce less, where does that leave a company focused on sustainability yet also set to expand with 100 new stores by the end of 2025?
Experts aren’t entirely convinced that a brand can do both, suggesting that per-product impact may not be enough. Innovation should be encouraged, but what matters is the net effect, says Maxine Bédat, executive director of think tank New Standard Institute. Do they add up to change the big picture? “The planet does not compute individual product innovations. What the planet notices is greenhouse gas emissions,” she says.
Rapid growth in the sustainable apparel and footwear space certainly isn’t new; however, recently, there have been clear examples of the pitfalls of those promises. Allbirds, a B corp-certified natural material sneaker brand, reported a 14.7 per cent decrease in revenue in 2023, resulting in plummeting stock prices. Coppens feels that On is considering those potential hurdles and curving them through innovation and ever-changing aesthetics.
“[It’s about asking] how do we tap into a way of dressing that other brands may have done, but not from our perspective as a sportswear brand?” he says. “It comes down to teams and how you inspire them to be part of that journey. It’s a constant exploration. [Yes] the product is good, but if you can’t really convey the energy that continuously has to be there, then at some point it just dies.”
Kürkçü, who previously held positions at the United Nations and at PVH Corp, says she has a plan of her own: textile innovation, a more aggressive focus on emissions and developing end-of-life solutions. CleanCloud, for example, dubbed the brand’s flagship sneaker line, uses carbon emissions to produce Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) foam, via working with Lanzatech to capture and convert industrial emissions before they enter the atmosphere.
The sportswear brand is also focused on supply chain transparency, in the form of a newly rolled out “responsible manufacturing blueprint” — a collaborative, three-tier approach with suppliers, particularly in Vietnam, to combat “audit fatigue”. (Kürkçü says suppliers are publicly listed, but more on due diligence standards will be available to the public from June.)
Now, it’s about embedding these principles into the everyday work of all employees, she says. Kürkçü points to the brand’s partnership with Carbonfact, a software programme that allows designers to see the carbon impact of their pieces during the design stage — from the materials to the process of getting it to market and even its end of life. “We onboarded all the designers in footwear. That was the first part since it’s 90 per cent of our business. And the second piece will be [onboarding] apparel teams.”
She went on to add that having individual team members acknowledge the full scope of a product’s impact, will likely improve overall sustainability goals. “Putting numbers next to their design in terms of impact is a very different way of looking at things moving forward.” The exact outcomes of this programme are yet to be reported, but Kürkçü believes this buy-in will contribute more widely for On.
On Running is trying to tackle circularity in a way other brands have not yet been able to, she flags: “Lots of cool things are happening, but if you ask me, is it happening in the big scale? Then no.” Kürkçü says the brand will launch several pilots that could include more recycling programmes, alongside its current subscription service, Cyclon, which as of this week includes a shirt, two running shoes and a pair of walking shoes. The sneakers are, in part, made from bio-based materials like castor beans, among other recycled components. Rental and peer-to-peer reselling are also likely in the pipeline. “When we look at circularity, we want to focus on three elements: circular design, circular business models and a strong operational backbone for scale.”
Kürkçü says that conveying this energy to employees throughout the supply chain, both in retail and in factories, is also part of it. “I think with the brand becoming bigger and the scopes getting bigger, there will be interesting challenges ahead of us. It’s not just about the product ultimately, right?” she says. “There are a lot of people working on a pair of shoes who probably never really see that shoe in its full context of how it was ideated in the beginning… that vision is super important.”
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