The Swiss Wardrobe

Guide, published

Is On a Swiss brand? Where On shoes and clothes are made

On is a Swiss company that designs in Zurich. Its shoes are made in Vietnam and Indonesia, its clothing mostly in Vietnam and Turkey. Little is made in Switzerland.

Yes, On is a Swiss brand: it was founded in Zurich in 2010, it is still headquartered there, and its shoes are designed and developed there. But almost nothing On sells is made in Switzerland. In 2025, about 90% of its shoes were produced in Vietnam and about 10% in Indonesia. The one exception is a small robot facility in Zurich that makes the uppers for some of its LightSpray running shoes.

So if you are buying On because it is a Swiss company, you are right. If you are buying it because you think the shoe was made in Switzerland, it almost certainly wasn’t.

The short version

Question Answer
Where is On from? Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 2010.
Where is it based today? Zurich. The head office is at Förrlibuckstrasse 190.
Where are the shoes designed? Zurich, at the On Lab.
Where are the shoes made? Vietnam (about 90%) and Indonesia (about 10%), by contract manufacturers.
Where is the clothing made? Vietnam (about 65%), Turkey (29%) and China (6%).
Is anything made in Switzerland? Uppers for some LightSpray shoes, sprayed by robots in Zurich since July 2025.
Can it be labelled “Swiss made”? No. On uses “Swiss Engineering” instead.

The production figures are On’s own, from its annual report for 2025.

Why On counts as a Swiss brand

On was started by three Swiss founders. Olivier Bernhard, a retired professional triathlete, built the first prototypes; On’s own account is that he glued pieces of garden hose to the sole of a running shoe to test the idea. David Allemann and Caspar Coppetti joined him in 2010, and the first shoes won an ISPO BrandNew award in March of that year.

The company is still run from Zurich. The head office and the On Lab, where new shoes are developed and tested, are both there. In 2025 On said that about a third of its roughly 3,000 employees worked in Switzerland, mainly in research, development and design.

On is no longer a small company, though. It is listed on the stock market in the United States, and it reported net sales of CHF 3.01 billion for 2025, with 58% of that coming from the Americas.

Where On shoes are actually made

On does not own shoe factories. Its annual report says that substantially all of its products are made by third-party manufacturers, fewer than 30 suppliers in total in 2025.

For shoes, the split in 2025 was:

  • Vietnam: about 90%
  • Indonesia: about 10%

This is normal for the industry. Most large running shoe brands, whatever country they come from, have their shoes made by contract factories in Southeast Asia. On is not unusual here. What is unusual is how prominently it puts Switzerland on the product.

Where On clothing is made

On’s running and training clothing follows a similar pattern, with one European country in the mix. In 2025, counted by units of apparel and accessories:

  • Vietnam: about 65%
  • Turkey: 29%
  • China: 6%

None of it is made in Switzerland.

The exception: LightSpray in Zurich

LightSpray is On’s method of making a shoe upper in one step: a robot arm sprays a single continuous filament onto a mould, instead of workers cutting and stitching dozens of separate pieces. On says the process takes about three minutes.

In July 2025 On opened what it calls the world’s first LightSpray production facility at its Zurich headquarters. It has four robots and makes uppers for On’s performance running shoes. It is the only place where part of an On product is manufactured in Switzerland.

Two things to keep in mind:

  • It covers a small number of performance running models, not the everyday shoes most people buy.
  • Zurich is no longer the only LightSpray site. In 2026 On opened a much larger one near Busan in South Korea, with 32 robots according to trade press reports. A LightSpray shoe is therefore not automatically one with a Zurich-made upper.

The Swiss cross on On shoes

On puts a small Swiss cross and the words “Swiss Engineering” on its shoes. This has been argued over for two years, and it is not settled.

The rule. Under Switzerland’s “Swissness” rules, in force since 2017, an industrial product can only be marketed as Swiss if at least 60% of its manufacturing costs arise in Switzerland and the essential manufacturing step happens there. On’s shoes do not meet that test, which is why they do not say “Swiss made”.

The dispute. In 2025 the association Swissness Enforcement demanded that On remove the cross from shoes made in Asia. On’s position was that the cross appears only with “Swiss Engineering”, which describes where the shoes are developed. At that point On was not selling shoes with the cross in Switzerland itself, only abroad.

The March 2026 decision. The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property then changed its practice. A product developed in Switzerland but made abroad may now carry the cross, as long as it appears together with wording such as “Swiss Engineering” and the cross is no larger than the lettering. On welcomed this and said the cross would appear on its shoes in Switzerland too.

What is still open. The decision was criticised by Swiss manufacturers that do produce in the country. On 24 September 2026 the Council of States, the upper house of the Swiss parliament, voted 32 to 5 for a motion to stop foreign-made products from carrying the cross. The Federal Council opposes changing the law for now and has asked for the rules to be evaluated first. In the United States, a class action filed in December 2025 claims that the cross and “Swiss Engineering” mislead buyers about where the shoes are made.

Whatever the outcome, the cross on an On shoe tells you where it was engineered. It does not tell you where it was made.

How to check your own pair

Look for the country of origin on the label inside the shoe and on the box. That is the only reliable indication for the pair in your hands. For clothing, check the sewn-in care label.

What this means if you want to buy Swiss

It depends on what “Swiss” means to you.

  • A Swiss company, with Swiss design and development: On qualifies, and so do most of the brands in our guide to Swiss clothing brands.
  • A product physically made in Switzerland: On does not qualify, apart from the Zurich-made LightSpray uppers. Look for the words “Swiss made” on the product, which are legally protected in a way that “Swiss Engineering” is not.

Neither answer says anything about how good the shoes are. Where a shoe is made and how well it is made are separate questions.

Sources