On Running Is Finally Ramping Up Production of Its ‘Hyper-Foam’ Spray-On Shoes

Swiss footwear company On—one of the fastest-growing footwear brands—has done precise good for itself, increasing into a $3 cardinal institution connected the elephantine puffy soles of its precise garish shoes. Today, the institution announced 3 caller kicks and the opening of a caller accumulation works successful South Korea that volition marque many, galore more—at least, that’s the goal.

Specifically, the institution is focusing connected the accumulation of its newest, weirdest shoe—a elephantine soled laceless moving footwear with a single-piece toed container made of “hyper-foam” plastics sprayed connected by robot arms. The plastics are 40 percent biofoam, and the footwear is made of conscionable 8 pieces; On says its minimalist attack saves connected the shoe's c footprint.

The LightSpray Cloudmonster 3 Hyper is simply a switch-up from On’s archetypal footwear that uses its sprayed-on toed container technique, the Cloudboom Strike LS. Along with adding the LightSpray branding to the thing, the superior quality is the power to the Cloudmonster model, which, successful On footwear lore, tends to supply much cushy soles. This caller mentation has 20 percent much foam, for each those runners who similar a squishy bounce. They’ll person a constricted merchandise connected the company’s website and retail stores successful North America starting March 5, with a planetary enlargement connected April 16.

The caller LightSpray shoes measurement 205 grams apiece (less than fractional a pound), which puts them a small heavier than the 170-gram Cloudboom Strikes. They’re besides cheaper astatine $280 versus the Cloudboom’s heftier $330 price.

While WIRED liked the archetypal iteration of the LightSpray shoe, cipher else, but for a fewer hand-picked marathon runners, had a accidental to usage it. Production runs were precise limited, and the shoes were prohibitively expensive. Now, On has beefed up accumulation successful South Korea, enabling it to grow its wide accumulation of LightSpray shoes 30-fold successful 2026.

“On's strategy to grow the LightSpray exertion from racing to moving shoes is to marque it disposable to a broader assemblage beyond elite athletes,” an On typical tells WIRED via email.

Whether laceless, slip-on shoes are going to find their gait successful the footwear marketplace isn't a winning thought yet. While brands similar Nike connection slip-ons, the laceless fixation tends to beryllium reserved for one-off shoes similar the Back to the Future II-inspired Adapt BB self-lacing shoes. Some superior runners similar the pursuit of a much earthy tally offered by slim-soled shoes similar barefoot shoes, but On is inactive doubling down connected its doubly large cushions. People look to similar them, arsenic On is besides announcing 2 different Cloudmonster shoes. One is the laced-up Cloudmonster 3, and the different is simply a regular ol’ Cloudmonster 3 Hyper with laces and a non-LightSprayed toed box. (Ugh, laces. How passé.)

On says it has the further strategical extremity of scaling up its planetary accumulation of the LightSpray shoes, “within the adjacent fewer years.”