Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
The ON CLOUDS GmbH company was founded in 2010, in Zurich, Switzerland, by three former professional athletes: Olivier Bernhard*, David Allemann, and Caspar Coppeti. The brand took off with Roger Federer’s endorsement and co-designer partnership in 2019, then went public on the New York Stock Exchange (ONON) in 2021. However, the story of the brand’s origin is one of a kind.
Indeed, ON running shoes were born of cut garden hose pieces (seen as “clouds”) attached under a sports shoe upper. The garden hose pieces were intended to provide a soft landing—gentle on knees—when compressed under the runner’s repeated impact with the ground. Such garden-hose “clouds” would also provide a hard enough surface to enable propulsion, after compression under impact with the ground. An original idea, cobbled by Oliver Bernhard, that became the brand’s “cushioned landing, powerful takeoff” award-winning** cloud technology.
The US design patent USD804159S, titled Shoe sole, was granted on Dec. 5, 2017 to David Allemann (CH ) and Olivier Bernhard (CH), for the ornamental properties of the ON CLOUDS running shoe sole, modeling the original hose-cloud sole.
Below, the patent Figures 1 and 2 depict, respectively, a bottom plan view and a lateral elevation view of the ON CLOUDS running shoe sole, together with an image of a marketed ON Clouds product.
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Notes:
* Swiss Ironman champion.
** ON won the ISPO (Internationale Sponsorenmesse) BrandNew Award in 2010.
