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The idea for the LightSpray™ production process has an unexpected inspiration: a video of the production of a spider’s web Halloween decoration.
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LightSpray™ technology allows the entire shoe to be produced in just 3 minutes using elastic thread, creating a lightweight shoe (170 grams) without seams or laces.
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The Cloudboom Strike LS minimizes weight, optimizing production and decreasing CO2 emissions by 75% compared to other On models.
This story begins with a member of the On Innovation team watching in curiosity a video of the production of a Halloween decoration: a spider’s web made by a hot glue gun makes him think that that same web could become something else.
The next scene takes place in an On laboratory where a hot glue gun is modified and something other than a spider’s web is created: a shoe. It’s rough, you can’t run in it, but imprisoned in that tangle of threads (indeed: of one thread) is the idea they have to develop: a shoe that has virtually no waste and fits the wearer’s foot perfectly.
For that matter, On’s midsole system has been proven for years: what is needed now is an upper that no one else has, something never attempted before, something that also responds to On’s principle of producing using fewer and fewer means: the limit is to use only those necessary and nothing more. Doing so contains the use of materials and consequently the production of manufacturing waste.
LS as LightSpray™
The idea is so promising that development of machines that can scale it to industrial production is proceeding. The production of a Cloudboom Strike LS shoe is the dance of a robotic arm that, in just three minutes, is capable of weaving an upper that weighs only 30 grams obtained by braiding an elastic thread and thermally fusing it to the midsole made of Helion™ HF double layer, On’s ultra-responsive Pebax formula that also integrates the Speedboard carbon fiber plate, without the use of glue. The result is a shoe that weighs only 170 grams (158 grams the women’s model) and has high performance reduced to a minimum: a midsole and upper without any stitching and without even the need for laces.
A shoe so fast it has been on the feet of Hellen Obiri, a 4-time world champion and winner of the Boston and New York marathons, even when she won the Boston Marathon for the second year in a row.
Now On, after finding a perfect balance between responsiveness and lightness in the midsole compartment with the use of ultralight compound and carbon plate, has focused on reducing weight and optimizing the upper production process with the invention of LightSpray™, a system for achieving maximum performance with the least use of material, also achieving a 75% reduction in C02 during shoe making compared to other On models, thanks to judicious use of material, minimization of production waste, and finally ultrafast and simplified production times, as they are reduced to the bare minimum.
For the Paris Olympics, On will show live production of the Cloudboom Strike LS from July 27 to August 10 and August 28 to September 8 at the On Labs Paris pop-up at 27 Boulevard Jules Ferry in Paris.
The Cloudboom Strike LS was already initially made available to the public in April and will be available for purchase again in fall/winter 2024. If you are interested, you can receive information about upcoming releases by signing up here.
The Cloudboom Strike LS have a list price of 330 euros.