On September 18, Swiss sports brand On officially announced its move into football and completed the signing of French football superstar Kylian Mbappé (Kylian Mbappé)'s signing.
After On signed Mbappé, the most immediate question is: why would a Swiss brand built on running suddenly enter a football market already dominated by Nike, Adidas and Puma?
If the answer is merely “to sell football boots,” the deal is hard to explain.
Football boots are an extremely specialized and highly mature market. For On to start from scratch building products, an athlete roster, distribution channels and consumer awareness — even if successful — the short-term market share it could take from Nike or Adidas would be small, and would hardly match the strategic ambition signaled by signing a global superstar like Mbappé.
From another angle, the move becomes much easier to understand.
What On may really need isn't the football-boot market itself, but the global cultural gateway that football provides.
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From running brand to sports brand, On has been seeking new “entry points”.
In fact, Mbappé teaming up with On is not just an ordinary endorsement switch; it's the result of a carefully arranged commercial strategy.
What On originally built around was running.
CloudTec, lightness, Swiss engineering — these helped it establish a very clear brand identity: technical, premium, modern.
But running also has natural limits.
Running can create a company, but it's hard for running alone to create a global brand like Nike that spans competitive sport, music, fashion and youth culture.
So in recent years the thing worth watching hasn't been which sport On moves into next, but its continual search for people who can carry the brand into new cultural circles.
© On Running
Roger Federer was the most important step in that process.
Federer certainly brought tennis to On, but if the collaboration were only about selling tennis shoes it would still be hard to fully explain. What he truly brought was something On originally lacked: a sense of history in elite sport, global recognition, and a prestige that naturally aligns with high-end consumers.
Zendaya, meanwhile, solved another problem.
Her relationship with On wasn't the traditional “star wears a pair of shoes.” From brand campaigns to co-created products, Zendaya helped On move from the language of performance into fashion, female consumers and pop culture.
Beyond that came LOEWE.
The significance of LOEWE × On isn't just whether the collab products sell well. A brand from the luxury system with strong design authority continually partnering with On is, in itself, helping On build a different kind of perception:
Technical performance sports products can also be high-end design products.
So Federer, Zendaya and LOEWE may look completely different, but they are performing the same function.
©On
They are all helping On gain entry into a world that wasn't originally its own.
And now, it's Mbappé's turn.
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What Mbappé brings isn't just football boots, but the world of football.
If Federer opened prestige sport for On, Zendaya opened fashion and pop culture, and LOEWE opened luxury design, then Mbappé is opening a far larger gateway.
Football.
It's one of the few sports cultures that truly speaks a global common language.
Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and the increasingly important U.S. market all contain huge football audiences. The World Cup, the Champions League, clubs, national teams and superstar players together form not just a sporting-goods market but a global system for cultural transmission.
So how many pairs On's first football boot ultimately sells may not be the most important question about this deal.
©On
A more important question is:
When Mbappé wears On in the world's most-watched matches, how many consumers who had never seriously noticed On before will see that logo for the first time?
This is a completely different kind of economic value. Running helps On build products; football could help On build global recognition.A pair of football boots can be an expensive advertising medium. From this angle, football boots can even be viewed as a special kind of media asset.
Traditional brands seeking global exposure need World Cup ads, outdoor campaigns, social media and celebrity campaigns. But for sports brands, one of the most valuable placements has always been on athletes.
If one of the world's most-watched footballers consistently wears a brand's boots on stages like Real Madrid, the French national team, the Champions League and the World Cup, then the boots themselves are continuously generating brand exposure.
Whether the shoe immediately becomes the market bestseller isn't the only form of return.
Because consumers might not buy On's football boots. What they might ultimately purchase are the Cloudmonster, Cloudsurfer, training gear, jackets, or even a future lifestyle line.
Football was responsible for introducing him to On for the first time; the real commercial conversion could be the whole brand. This is why On doesn't necessarily need to copy Nike's and Adidas's football strategies. It may not have to immediately sign dozens of athletes, sponsor a dozen teams, and build a full football empire. For a brand that insists on premium positioning, a strategy more in line with its existing playbook might instead be:
A handful of the most influential people, a few collaborations with the greatest cultural value, and very high exposure efficiency.
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Mbappé's ties to luxury brands make the matter even more interesting.
If Mbappé were simply a great footballer, the deal would already make sense.
But his commercial identity gives it a second layer of meaning.
Dior, Hublot, RIMOWA, and LOEWE — which is linked to his philanthropic projects — together place Mbappé in a brand environment far beyond that of a traditional football endorser.
And On has already, through collaborations with LOEWE, Zendaya, and others, been working to position itself between performance and fashion.
So the two have a very rare overlap. On provides Mbappé with performance products. Mbappé brings On into a cultural network made up of football, fashion, luxury, and global celebrities.
© On Angpao
This is also why what will be most worth watching in the future may not be the second pair of football boots, but ratherwho On will stand alongside next.
If one day On partners with a football club that has strong urban culture and fashion credentials, or if a Mbappé-centered signature collection appears, followed by apparel, jerseys, jackets and lifestyle products, then the real significance of today's signing will truly become apparent.
AJ × PSG has already proven that football jerseys can leave the pitch and become part of global fashion consumption.
On doesn't have to copy that answer, but it could very well be searching for another answer to the same question.
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What On ultimately wants to become may not be a bigger running-shoe company.
So the two have a very rare overlap. On provides Mbappé with performance products. Mbappé brings On into a cultural network made up of football, fashion, luxury, and global celebrities.
Connecting the moves of the past few years, On's path begins to become clear. Running gives it the technology, Federer gives it sporting prestige, Zendaya gives it pop culture, and LOEWE gives it high-end design.
Mbappé, meanwhile, gives it global football culture.
Taken individually, these moves could each be explained as a single endorsement, a collaboration, or an expansion into a new category.
But put together, they may point to something else:
On is trying to define which world it belongs to.
Of course it will continue to sell running shoes; it will also sell tennis shoes and training products, and very likely hopes to sell football boots in the future.
But "what shoes it sells" may no longer be the most important question.
The real question is: when a consumer sees On, what do they think of?
Ten years ago, the answer was probably Swiss running shoes.
Today, it's working to make the answer technology, design, sport, fashion and global culture.
This is also where Mbappé truly matters.
On doesn't necessarily need to rely on him to win the football boots market.
What it needs is that when the whole world watches football, the whole world sees On.
And if the next step is that it can recombine that exposure through Mbappé, Zendaya, Federer, LOEWE and future club and design collaborations, then what football ultimately gives On may not be revenue from football business at all. Rather, it would be a leap in brand identity.
From a successful premium running company to a truly global premium sports brand.
Football boots are just one product needed to complete this leap.
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Text/Editor: sun
Image source: Pao Ye Da Bao Zha / On (Ang Pao)
Visual: Max
