Two-time Kenyan Olympic silver medallist and multiple marathon winner Hellen Obiri will make history as she sports the new spray-on Cloudboom Strike LS sneakers from sportswear company On at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The one-of-a-kind sneaker features a one-piece upper created with On’s groundbreaking LightSpray technology. To create the shoe, a robot fuses 1,5km of filament in a complex pattern onto a high-performance racing midsole, forming the complete shoe upper in a single, three-minute step.
‘For decades, running shoes have been made and developed in the same way, prompting us to rethink the standard process,’ explains the On Innovation team. Traditional upper manufacturing involves multiple stages, including yarn extrusion and finishing, weaving or knitting, sewing and assembling of parts. In contrast, LightSpray uses a robotic arm to create an ultra-light, one-piece shoe upper, fully automated and in just one step.
The LightSpray one-step manufacturing approach paves the way for more sustainable manufacturing in the future. The process reduces waste and produces an upper with 75% fewer carbon emissions than On's other racing shoes. The process enables faster production of high-performance shoes.
An integrated patent-pending thermal fusing technology allows LightSpray uppers to bond seamlessly to the midsole without the need for glue. Once the uppers are created, branding is added via a fully automated ink-jet printing process. This offers a more sustainable solution than typical branding processes, using a minimal amount of water and allowing for high design flexibility.
The shoe offers exceptional support and conforms perfectly to users’ feet, say the developers. This seamless design removes distractions and even eliminates laces, all while maintaining an ultra-lightweight of just 170 grams – with the upper itself weighing approximately 30 grams.
‘LightSpray marks a significant milestone for On, not only in creating high performance products but also the potential it has to move us towards a more sustainable, circular future,’ says Marc Maurer, co-CEO of On. ‘Our team is constantly challenging itself to rethink the status quo in terms of the design, development, and manufacturing of performance sportswear.’
Earlier in 2024, Obiri wore a development version of the Cloudboom Strike LS when she won the Boston Marathon for the second year in a row.
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