Recently I found myself strolling at the Los Angeles County Musem of Art (LACMA). A woman suddenly appears in front of my face, she keeps looking down at my feet in disbelief, her eyes were rolling and finally she goes:”are those shoes part of the permanent collection”? I smiled at her, walked away and thought this was pretty funny.
It’s not only a love for running that former top athlete Olivier Bernhard and his friends David Allemann and Caspar Coppetti share. They’re all dedicated to developing a perfect product. And it’s this drive and determination that have turned a tentative experiment with bits of garden hose into a bold new running shoe that has not only amazed the sporting scene but has also helped several top athletes to new personal bests at World Championship and Olympic events. Once he had retired from professional competition, twotimes World Duathlon Champion and multiple Ironman Winner Olivier Bernhard devoted himself to finding a running shoe that would give him the perfect running sensation. In doing so he crossed paths with a similarly-minded Swiss engineer who had an idea for a new kind of running shoe. And it was this ideal symbiosis of running experience and engineering expertise that allowed this original idea to be steadily refined over the following years. Cupboardfuls of prototypes were developed; but the basic concept – soft landing, firm take-off – remained paramount throughout. It was this fundamental approach and the unique running sensation it promised that convinced Caspar Coppetti and David Allemann to come aboard, too. As soon as they put them on, Caspar and David realized that the new shoes were no gimmick. And after a few kilometres of jogging in them, every ounce of initial scepticism had been transformed into sheer enthusiasm for the new creation. Caspar and David joined the team, bringing with them all their design and marketing expertise and all their company development experience. After that, things started to move swiftly. Following a morethan- successful trial at the Zurich Ironman event, the On company was formally established in January 2010. By July of that year the first sports stores had Ons on their shelves.
And today the shoe is available from over 700 retailers in more than 20 countries. It’s been steadily winning design and technology prizes all over the world, too: only recently, an independent panel honoured the On Cloudracer with the ISPO Gold Award as the “Best Performance Shoe in 2013. And the story continues to bloosom and grow in 2014 with new models and innovations.
The Mirus team is wearing the On ever since the production of the first issue in Barcelona. And this is certainly not only a shoe to be practicing your jogging exercises — it can be worn for all kinds of non sporting activties and even looks cool in combination with denim jeans. We wouldn’t be surprised if that shoe will soon be worn in the major cities. But please be aware, the On comes with a price tag, but we feel that every buck is well invested here, or, have you ever worn shoes that are as light as a cloud?
