Can You Make a Next-Gen Running Shoe By Spraying? On Thinks So.

There are many ways to make a shoe, and the materials, function and design all play a part in precisely how a pair of footwear comes together. It’s entirely possible that the shoes you’re wearing now are assembled in a way that’s in keeping with decades- or centuries-old traditions. Unless you’re wearing On’s new Cloudboom Strike LS, that is. While there are time-honored shoemaking traditions, spraying a shoe into place is not one of them — and that’s precisely what the Swiss company has done with this new model.

As Dezeen’s Tom Ravenscroft reports, this shoe from the Zendaya-approved brand is the first from the company to make use of a proprietary technology designed to create a better fit with a more efficient performance. “[T]he special thing is that it’s basically making an upper in only one production step using our own engineered and developed technology, fully automated, within three minutes,” On’s Nils Altrogge told Dezeen.

The engineering process for the Cloudboom Strike LS is distinctive, but the results have also been impressive. Writing at The New York Times, Vanessa Friedman revealed that Olympian distance runner Hellen Obiri won this year’s Boston Marathon with a prototype of the shoe in question — and she’ll be competing in the Paris Olympics with a pair on as well.

On Just Signed Zendaya. Here’s Why the Match Makes Sense.

The Swiss label isn’t really a running brand anymore — and that’s by design

Elite runners aren’t the target market for the Cloudboom Strike LS, though – or at least they aren’t the entirety of it. Interested parties can get more information on when the shoes are set to go on sale to the general public on On’s website. They’ll retail for $330.00, with the Times reporting that they’ll be on sale this fall. Are we witnessing the beginning of a new shoemaking tradition? Stay tuned.