On creates precision-sprayed technology

Reporting on an innovative sports shoe which has been designed and manufactured with a new and innovative production process.

Swiss sportswear manufacturer On has created what it calls a ‘revolutionary single-step manufacturing process’. This involves a thermoplastic filament being precision-sprayed to form a thin, engineered upper designed for lightweight performance without seams or the need for laces. An automated robotic arm is used which is reportedly capable of producing a shoe in three minutes.

The new technology – which the company has called ‘LightSpray’ – was developed by the team in its Zurich laboratories. In the manufacturing process, a thermoplastic material is melted, after which it is accelerated into a helical filament using air pressure and then this strand is applied to a foot-shaped carrier on which the shoe's upper is formed. Almost one mile of a single filament is fused by a robotic arm into a complex pattern onto a midsole, thus forming the complete shoe without the need for glue or seams. Branding is then added to the finished upper using an ink-jet printing process. The resulting shoe weighs in at 170 g for US men’s size 8.5 (30 g of which is the weight of the upper) and 158 g for US women’s size 7.

The midsole features two layers of the company’s ‘Helion HF hyper foam’, which is said to be made with over 40 per cent of raw bio-based materials while providing impact absorption and high energy return. A pre-shaped, stiff carbon ‘Speedboard’ is sandwiched between the foam layers, and neither a sockliner nor Strobel construction comes in direct contact with the Helion HF hyper foam in order to minimise energy loss. The heel-to-toe drop is 4 mm.

According to On, the LightSpray process minimises waste and reduces CO2 emissions by 75 per cent in comparison to other On racing footwear, while paving the way for a circular future and faster, localised production.

Helping to win races

The ‘Cloudboom Strike LS’ is the first On shoe to feature LightSpray technology. In April 2024, Kenyan runner Hellen Obiri wore a development version of the shoe while winning the Boston Marathon for the second consecutive year. In that same month, the Cloudboom Strike LS was initially released to the public, and it will be made available again for the Autumn/Winter 2024 season.

A spark of innovation

As with many new technologies, the inspiration for LightSpray came from an unexpected source – on this occasion, a Hallowe’en decoration. A member of On’s innovation team watched a video showing how a hot-glue gun could be utilised to create imitation spiders’ webs. Having observed the speedy creation of such a complex shape, they envisaged a shoe as being the perfect application for this technology. The first step was to make a simple prototype shoe upper with a handheld, modified hot-glue gun. This progressed to the development of a unit to produce a continuous filament in order to form an engineered structure.

The recommended retail price of the On Cloudboom Strike LS is USD 330 (GBP 255).

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 4 of the July/August 2024 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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