Why On’s Hot 2025 Turned Into a Cautious 2026

Good morning, friends! Welcome back to The Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. I appreciate you giving me a bit of your time. Daylight saving time is back in the US this weekend. Don’t forget to set your clocks, folks.

We’ve got a bit of a juicy newsletter today. Another guest is here! This time, we chat with On co-founder David Allemann following the brand’s hot 2025.

That great year for On is contrasted by a more cautious approach to growth in 2026 — at least for them, anyway. Plus, I wrote a bit about Nike’s ACG rebrand in a larger story for The Business of Fashion. We also have a netball (!!!!!) reference, which I’m sure my folks in the UK will be thrilled about.

Quick hits

• The Virgil Abloh Archive is teasing a World Cup drop. This is exciting, y’all!
• I highly recommend listening to the homie Lei Takanashi on The Debrief this week. He’s talking about his piece on how Hip-Hop chooses its style icons. Fascinating stuff.
• Nike unveiled A’ja Wilson’s shoe in Paris this week. What a rollout.

Alright. Let’s dive in.

On Catches Its Stride

The Swiss sportswear company reported 30 percent year-over-year growth in 2025, beating out even some of the hottest competitors in the industry like New Balance (19 percent), Brooks (16 percent) and Adidas (13 percent).

This growth is all relative, obviously. On isn’t a $40 billion company like Nike (though, On’s $14 billion market cap is nothing to sneeze at!). But, considering that the Swiss brand has only been around for 16 years, its full-year sales mark of 3.0 billion CHF ($3.8 billion) is nothing to scoff at.

Despite the success of 2025, the company’s shares dipped on Tuesday after its earnings call due to a tepid — for them, anyway — forecast of 23 percent growth for 2026.

On co-founder David Allemann was kind enough to give me a bit of time to chat with him about all of it. We talked about everything from the company’s success in 2025, its approach to 2026, how it views its collaborations and more.

Enjoy!

This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity.

Mike Sykes: I expected good results from On, but a 30 percent sales increase for the year is something your competitors haven’t come close to. How’d you all put this successful run together?

On co-founder, David Allemann: We’re tapping into something new. We’re tapping into what we call the movement class. We feel it’s really a shift in society. Consumers are willing to see sportswear, footwear and performance footwear, not just as a utility piece but very much as an identity piece. Some of the sneaker communities have been there first, but now it’s much broader and wider. Our goal is to build the most premium sportswear brand, and it’s resonating. It’s giving us very high margins.

Sykes: With that said, On projected a 23 percent sales increase for 2026, which is still ahead of the class. But it’s a moderate takedown of what you did in 2025. What is the difference there?

Allemann: You’re still going to see a lot of demand. But we’re very disciplined about that demand. We make sure that we grow in the right way. We’re not building a brand for the next year — we’re building a brand for decades. We have to make sure that we’re in the right channels and that we’re very disciplined with how we build our different franchises that connect to the different communities.

For example, the Light Spray franchise. How do we make sure we scale that in a disciplined way? Our Cloud business. Our Roger [Federer] business. Cloudswift, which we are going to do with running and with kids. How do we go to the very pinnacle in our partnership with Loewe? We don’t just look at the overall business, but we look at the individual franchises. How do we do that in a disciplined way so that it translates into premium growth?

I feel that 23 percent is very, very aggressive scaling at this level. We’re confident that this leads to growth in, not just the next year, but also in the years after.

Sykes: The Kith partnership fascinates me. One of the things I hear from people when I talk to them about On is that the brand hasn’t had a cultural moment for sneakerheads or streetwear enthusiasts. Had you seen that criticism and was that something you thought about with this?

Allemann: It’s just a different approach, especially in the sneaker space. A lot comes from the past — comes from heritage. We always come from the future. We’re the innovation brand. That’s probably the more unusual approach that people just have to fully grasp.

In the case of Kith, the Cloudswift was one of our pinnacle running shoes and still is. It’s probably a bit closer to what the consumer knows from drops and specific silhouettes that they know from the past. But, again, we’re always going to the future. Light Spray is a good example of that. Light Spray is not something we’re taking and quoting it from the past, but we’re bringing something from the future. We expect that this will meet an audience that is very, very broad because it goes from the core athlete to somebody who sees that through a fashion lens.

Sykes: It feels like there has been a push from the luxury and premium brands of the world to get into performance running. This feels like it falls into that category. Is that something the brand considers in its collaborations?

Allemann: We do. It always has to be genuine and it’s always long-term partnerships. Loewe has been, now, more than a five-year partnership. We’re not doing speed dating. It always starts with innovation as well. If you think about the latest Loewe drop — the Cloudsolo — we developed that outsole together and it took two and a half years.

We want On to be the most premium brand in the sports industry. Not coming from a luxury angle, but an innovation angle. We serve that movement class that wants to have footwear and apparel that is premium and performs at the very best, but of course, also has an attitude. We feel that space is opening more than ever. It’s not just a specific cohort in society, but it’s across this society that this ageless athlete wants to feel comfortable, wants to perform, wants to say something about their mindset and their attitude that they actually invest into themselves.

Sykes: Do you still see yourself as a challenger brand in this space?

Allemann: We absolutely see ourselves as a challenger brand. Probably more than kind of just challenging others, it’s about challenging ourselves. Because we’re that innovation brand and we’re always reinventing, so we’re never kind of just sitting on an archive. We’re always going back to the drawing board and asking ourselves what could be? What’s the next? What can you do with a hot glue gun?

So essentially, that’s when you look at our mantra, it’s “Dream On.” We feel that when you move, you’re not just moving your body, but you’re also moving your mind. You’re igniting your spirit. You start to dream. You come up with an innovation.

A Cautious Vibe For 2026

I want to quickly touch on a key point from the above conversation with Allemann, specifically about the brand’s cautious approach to 2026.

Why it matters: Don’t get me wrong — 23 percent growth is great, generally speaking. Most brands would love to see even half of that figure. But that’s a cautious mark for a brand that is as hot as On is right now. It certainly has investors’ eyebrows raised. That’s why, despite the 2025 success, the company’s shares dropped by nearly 7 percent on Tuesday.

Zoom out: It isn’t just On taking this approach to its business in 2026. Adidas — one of the most successful sportswear companies in recent years — is doing the same thing.

• The company announced 13 percent growth for the full year in 2025 and a record amount in sales at $24.8 billion.
• Despite that success, the company’s guidance for 2026 says it expects revenue to increase at a high-single-digit rate. It expects the same for 2027 and 2028.

Like On, shareholders didn’t like this cautious approach. Adidas shares dropped by around 8 percent after the company’s announcement.

The why: It’s easy to see that brands are being cautious, but the reason behind that caution is hard to explain. Tariff concerns are an easy out, but it’s not that simple. Many countries are facing lower tariff rates than they were last year following the Supreme Court’s ruling against US President Donald Trump’s policy. That is specifically the case for On, which sources from Vietnam and Indonesia, where tariff rates are essentially being slashed in half.

To me, this seems rooted in consumer caution. Consumer sentiment has been in decline for months now. Brands are bracing for shoppers to slow their spending across regions. That’s especially true in the Middle East where the Iran war has already begun to impact fashion.

The bottom line: As more companies issue guidance and share results, be prepared to see more caution exercised across the board.

Nike’s ACG Rebrand

There’s been a bit of confusion around Nike’s “reintroduction” of its All Conditions Gear (ACG) sub-label.

Here’s why: The label never went anywhere for it to need to be reintroduced. Or, at least, that’s what my thinking was, anyway.

• As someone who has owned many ACG pieces, from footwear to its funky outdoor jackets, I never quite felt like the brand lost its lustre.
• It wasn’t a mainstream brand, but it never has been in its nearly 40 years of existence. I didn’t know if it needed to be now.

Yes, but: After digging a bit deeper on this for my latest at BoF, I’ve got a pretty good grasp on why this is happening.

The other side: Nike is repositioning its ACG label as something bigger than the niche outerwear fashion label that it used to be. It has a new performance-based ethos that Nike seems eager to use to push into the front of the outdoors category, competing with brands like The North Face and Arc’teryx.

I asked the brand directly if that was its goal for ACG in my story and didn’t get a direct answer. But the moves that Nike has made with ACG over these last few months make that crystal clear to me. That includes:

• The way the brand was marketed at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
• The opening of Nike’s first-ever standalone ACG store in Beijing in January.
• Nike making the decision to fold its trail running business into ACG.

ACG is now positioned to be something it’s never been before — one of Nike’s big front-facing brands.

Will it work? That’s the golden question everyone wants an answer to. After my chat with BCE Consulting advisor and sportswear industry expert Matt Powell, I think it has a real shot. Footwear is the key.

You can read more details in the story here.

The Netball Niche

I certainly did not expect to see a netball beauty collaboration hitting my inbox this week, but here we are.

What’s new: Netball is entering the beauty space with a new collaboration between the Netball Super League’s Nottingham Forest team and the UK beauty tool brand, Tweezerman.

• The collaboration officially launches on March 8, which coincides with the team’s first game and International Women’s Day.
• The partnership will have Tweezerman branding throughout Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena during the upcoming season.
• The brand will also collaborate with Forest Netball’s players with confidence clinics, encouraging young women to stay engaged in sport.

Why this matters: The sports collaboration space is littered with partnerships, collaborations and deals between teams, brands and athletes across the board. We see so many of these come across our desks and timelines every week. What fascinates me isn’t necessarily where the industry has been. I’m more interested in where it’s going. What ground hasn’t been covered? This move is one made on fresh ground.

Don’t get it twisted: I don’t think this is the start of some big netball movement or a wave of brands partnering with the NSL and its teams.

But I would love to see more brands playing in smaller spaces like this one, where the competition isn’t quite as fierce. Not only is this a smart way for a brand to meet new consumers, but it’s also a great way to grow a sport.

#TheKicksWeWear

This is the community section of the newsletter where you (Yes, you!!!!) send me your best fits and kicks from the week. Feel free to send submissions to michael.sykes@businessoffashion.com or shoot me a message via social channels @MikeDSykes

The homie Saoirse came through with a couple of heavy hitters in the Chinatown Maxes and the Why Not 0.1s. What a pull!

The homie Storm came through with these All-Star KD 6s. Classics, y’all! These are classics!

The homie Jess came through with these Miami-esque NB 740s. I love this pair so much!!! The summer vibes are strong here.

The homie Bwalla sent us home with these Arts and Rec Dunks. I don’t know about y’all, man. But these restore the feeling for me.

That’s the good stuff!

Thanks for reading, gang!

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, reach out to me via email at michael.sykes@businessoffashion.com or shoot me a message @MikeDSykes via socials.

Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.

-Sykes 💯