A brand that grew from running challenger to global leader is choosing to be a challenger again, betting three athletes and its manufacturing story can build football credibility fast.
On is entering football. The Swiss sportswear brand named Kylian Mbappé as the athlete at the center of that expansion and confirmed Thierry Henry as its new Director of Football, a role he has held informally since late 2025 while advising on product and athlete strategy. The move, announced in Zurich on Sept. 18, marks On’s first entry into a team sport since it was founded in 2010 as a running specialist.
On built its position among the world’s largest sportswear companies on CloudTec, the structurally engineered midsole behind its running shoes, and more recently on LightSpray, a robotic manufacturing process introduced in 2024 that builds a shoe’s upper from a single sprayed filament instead of stitched panels.
Football is where that trajectory doubles back on itself: a company that grew from a running challenger into a global leader is entering the sport as a challenger again, aiming, in David Allemann’s words, to become “the brand of the future” through “new ideas and a challenge” to how the category is built. The co-founder and co-CEO called Mbappé “the perfect partner” for that ambition.
Mbappé, a member of France’s 2018 World Cup-winning squad and the top scorer at the 2022 tournament, now plays for Real Madrid. On places him at the heart of its football journey, with his on-field read of the game feeding directly into prototype testing for footwear and apparel. The relationship runs past product: he also becomes a global ambassador for the brand across movement, performance and design. He said he wants to “stay true to the joy of football” as the product takes shape.
Thierry Henry, a member of France’s 1998 World Cup -winning squad and Arsenal’s all-time leading scorer, takes on a broader mandate than a typical ambassador role. After roughly a year advising informally, he becomes Director of Football with a remit covering product decisions, athlete relationships and how the brand builds its football culture over time, according to On. He described the approach as one built to “listen to players, understand what they need.”
Sydney Schertenleib, a Swiss international who plays for FC Barcelona, first joined On in December 2025 as an ambassador for its training and lifestyle lines. On casts her as part of football’s next generation: that relationship now has her working alongside product teams to develop and test footwear aimed at the women’s game. She said she has “never felt the ball like I have” in the prototypes so far.
The launch is documented in a photo series by Juergen Teller, shot inside On’s product labs in Zurich, tying the brand’s football debut to its manufacturing story rather than a conventional pitch-side campaign.
For a company whose growth has come almost entirely from running, entering football is a category expansion at a point where that core business has matured. Pairing a marquee player, a former elite footballer in an internal strategy role, and a rising women’s international in a single announcement is On’s attempt to compress years of category credibility-building into one launch.
The confirmation caps weeks of speculation, fueled in part by an unbranded Instagram account that had already named Mbappé, with the account’s identity and its supporting posts staying hidden until early afternoon.
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