David Allemann on Building On, Running Communities and the Federer Partnership

Harry Stebbings welcomes David Allemann, co-founder and co-chairman of On, for a conversation about building a running brand. Stebbings says he is a fan of the company's products; Allemann speaks as a founder with a direct commercial interest in its performance and partnerships.

Allemann traces On to a rainy morning in 2009. His co-founder Olivier, a duathlon world champion and triathlete, invited him and Caspar to try a prototype: a running shoe with pieces cut from a garden hose glued to its sole. The unusual feel convinced them to explore the idea.

Olivier wanted a shoe that combined the cushioning of a training shoe with the responsive push-off of a racing flat. Allemann says the hollow elements compressed on landing and provided a flatter surface for pushing off. The description reflects the founder's account of the design and its feel.

At first the founders were uncertain. Athletes tried the shoes and often remarked that they felt different; Caspar visited specialist running shops. Allemann flew to Asia through a personal connection to learn how shoes were manufactured, despite the team's lack of experience in the industry.

Factory staff saw the hollow sole as especially difficult to manufacture because of the tooling needed to create holes. Allemann brought prototypes and asked them to try the shoes, recreating the experience that had persuaded the founders. He returned with early factory prototypes.

The team entered the prototypes at the ISPO sports trade fair and won an innovation award. Around the same time, marathon champion Tegla Loroupe called to praise shoes she had used on a peace run. Allemann recalls these events occurring soon after the company's formation in early 2010.

Before committing full time, the three founders discussed the risk during a long hike in the Swiss mountains. They reasoned that their relatively secure circumstances gave them room to try something uncertain. Allemann and Caspar left their jobs, Olivier stopped coaching athletes, and the team committed to On.

The promising start quickly met practical constraints: retailers wanted delivery by June, but the company had only prototypes. Allemann returned to the factory to get an initial batch of roughly 2,000 pairs made. The founders and early supporters had put money into the company, so he traveled by the cheapest route he could find.

Caspar and Olivier visited running shops one by one. Their opening was often to call and say they happened to be in town with a shoe in the retailer's size, then invite the person for a run. It was slow groundwork to win the first opportunities to demonstrate the product.

Design was part of On's identity from the beginning. Allemann says head of design Thilo came from product design rather than shoe design, which helped the team question conventions. The visible sole drew attention, while the rest of the shoe followed a stripped-down, functional Swiss design aesthetic.

People initially warned that the shoe needed the decorative cues common in performance footwear. The founders persisted with minimalism. Allemann says the unfamiliar aesthetic may have been an initial obstacle but ultimately made the product distinctive; that is his retrospective assessment.

The founders did not know how to produce or sell shoes, but they brought different skills: marketing and advertising experience, product design and Olivier's athlete's sensitivity to a shoe's details. Allemann values that mix and jokes that knowing every obstacle ahead might have discouraged them from starting.

He says entering a market generally required two or three years of patient work with athletes, specialist retailers, test runs and running communities. Switzerland eventually showed a sharp acceleration. The small home market pushed On to think globally from the beginning, with the US in its second year and Japan in its third.

The founders considered a US presence essential for an international sports brand. They already knew the country and had some contacts, but did not launch everywhere at once. They worked through local communities in selected cities, including New York and later other metropolitan areas.

On sought strong retail partners because trusted shops could explain the shoe more credibly than the company simply calling its own product the best. At the same time, the team launched a website and direct e-commerce, recalling about 50 pairs sold in the first months. Community runs and digital channels developed alongside each other.

Olivier drew on his athletic network to put shoes on runners' feet. Allemann remembers triathlete Frederik Van Lierde racing the Ironman World Championship in an On prototype in 2013, while Olivier worried it might fall apart. Van Lierde won, a moment Allemann sees as emblematic of the brand's connection with athletes.

Stebbings asks whether a focus on elite athletes could alienate ordinary customers. Allemann says On wanted to earn credibility in core running first. He recalls seeing an Oscar winner wearing its Cloud shoe on a red carpet as a sign that the product had crossed into popular culture.

The move into apparel began when the team wanted to run in its own gear. Allemann and Thilo assembled a small capsule collection of about ten pieces, including shorts, a T-shirt and a lightweight jacket. He sees apparel as a natural extension of a global sports brand.

Apparel brought unfamiliar challenges, particularly sizing for different body shapes and finding partners able to sell clothing. Unlike a shoe displayed as a three-dimensional object on a wall, garments need presentation, combinations and context to help customers picture a complete look.

On worked with established retail partners that already knew how to present apparel. Allemann cites Nordstrom, Dick's, Foot Locker, Kith and Beams as examples of relationships, and says partners' investment in the brand helped it expand the category. His description reflects On's commercial perspective.

The company chose a New York location for its own store before COVID and opened during the pandemic. With little tourist traffic, it connected with local runners and learned from a relatively quiet launch. As people returned, community runs became part of the store's activity and On began extending its store concept to other cities.

The question behind the store design was why a customer should come in instead of ordering online. In a conventional shop, Allemann says, staff can spend much of the visit retrieving sizes from the back rather than talking with the customer.

On created a display called the archive, with drawers containing sizes of each shoe so a customer can try one quickly. Once the model is chosen, staff fetch a fresh pair. Allemann says the aim is to increase interaction time and reduce transaction time, a design claim from the company.

He describes On's “explorer” spirit as a willingness to investigate and empower teams with complementary skills. Sometimes the resulting answer resembles industry practice; other times the team finds a different solution. He argues that this process is part of the company's culture.

Asked about a failed exploration, Allemann recalls a 2013 production crisis: a factory partner went bankrupt with raw materials for the next season inside. He asked for a way to recover them; the next morning he was told someone had climbed the fence, retrieved the materials and moved assembly to another factory. This is his recollection of a near-death experience.

At roughly 30 employees, many responsibilities still rested on the three founders. The crisis reinforced the need for experienced people with complementary skills. Allemann credits Mark and Martin, who became co-CEOs, with taking on finance, operations and execution as the company grew.

He resists the idea that a founder must hold every leadership role indefinitely. For him, the right moment to add help is when the work is becoming too much and things are starting to break. On began as a partnership among three founders, and he says that collaborative model shaped the leadership team.

Early funding came from the founders and friends who could contribute money and sometimes operational help. Allemann remembers dressing mannequins with an early investor at a running event in Austin. Tech investors who liked the shoes also joined early, followed by venture investment from Stripes.

The partnership with Roger Federer began organically, Allemann says, after the team saw him post a picture wearing On shoes. Mutual friends arranged dinner in Zurich. They discussed sport, innovation, technology, design and culture, and found common ground.

Federer challenged the team to bring its CloudTec concept to tennis. At a subsequent meeting the company showed him a printed outsole with the technology incorporated into a tennis shoe. Allemann says the work later appeared in a shoe Federer wore for his Wimbledon return.

Rather than offer a conventional paid athlete endorsement, On proposed that Federer invest and become a co-entrepreneur. Allemann says Federer agreed. He describes an ongoing partnership in which Federer spends roughly 30 to 40 days a year working with the team, including on products; that time estimate is the founder's account.

Allemann says the launch of the collaboration, including a run in New York's Central Park and media appearances, significantly increased brand awareness. He also describes Federer as engaged in developing tennis and running products. The claimed effect is his assessment, not a measured attribution.

Working with Federer, Allemann says he has observed humility, engagement and a habit of asking questions that push the team. His praise reflects a business partner's perspective as well as his personal experience.

For Allemann, a brand is both a community and an idea. On's stated mission links movement with the human spirit: he believes running and other sports can refresh a person's mind as well as support physical performance. This is the company's mission and its founder's perspective.

He wants a visitor to an On store to feel the company's concern for product, innovation and sport, but also to see movement as more than a personal record. Looking back, he thinks On may have waited too long to invest in wider cultural relevance beyond its grassroots community.

Stebbings asks whether earlier access to much more capital would have helped. Allemann says On wanted fast growth but also durable growth and profitability. He does not regret maintaining that balance, although he thinks broader brand awareness could have started earlier.

Asked which brand he admires, Allemann chooses Apple. He praises its combination of technical innovation, design and human experience, recalling details such as the breathing sleep light on a laptop and the feel of scrolling on an early iPhone.

Keeping products simple while adding features is difficult, he says. The founders spend time in the lab building capabilities and then trying to remove complexity. He cites the Cloud shoe's speed-lacing system as an example of a simple feature that customers appreciated.

In the quick-fire round, Allemann chooses Cleopatra as a hypothetical dinner guest because meeting someone from a distant historical world would satisfy his desire to explore. He says putting 120% into product quality can sometimes beat optimizing for an 80/20 result, while acknowledging that this is not always true.

He says AI has changed his thinking about technology: tasks once thought creative may also be affected, leaving people to consider not only creation but curation and orchestration. This is his reflection in 2023, not a claim about a settled future.

Asked which celebrity he would like to adopt On next, he returns to the importance of people who care about running and its culture. He names the team itself as a mentor: colleagues and founders challenge one another, which requires being willing to hear criticism and let go.

He recalls returning to a new office after the pandemic and finding that the organization had grown from around 200 people before the move to around 700. Many had never shared a physical space, yet he felt the team had sustained its culture. The figures are his recollections.

Looking five years ahead, Allemann hopes On will remain connected to runners while building tennis and apparel into a broader sports brand. These are the founder's ambitions, not guaranteed results. Stebbings thanks him and the interview ends.