Review all prior ONON research and portfolio changes on the TSOH website
From “On Holdings: Maintaining Pace” (July 2026):
“Mr. Market has some concerns about the sustainability of their current financial trajectory. Personally, I am somewhat less pessimistic about On than I think this rating implies. I see a premium athletic brand that etched out a unique position in the industry, at least at its current size… If I walk away from [On’s 2026 Investor Day] with more appreciation for where this business can go over the next five to ten years, I will be open to changing my conclusion.”
The Investor Day in question was held last week in Zurich, with the company setting medium-term financial targets through FY29, announcing their first share repurchase authorization, and detailing their plans to expand into golf and soccer (welcome aboard Mbappé). For a stock that has spent most of 2026 heading in the wrong direction, the >10% pop in response was a notable change in direction; with that said, it’s still down ~35% year to date.
The Mbappé signing is a fitting place to start, because I think it captures the broader strategic vision for On. As management noted at the Investor Day, “We are entering because at the premium end of the sport there is still space left open for radical innovation on the pitch... A few incumbents own the architecture of the category, and they compete head-to-head. We will play a different game… Our innovation engine has given us an entry ticket nobody else holds. I’m quoting Sydney Schertenleib – ‘I’ve never felt the ball like this before’. That’s what Sydney said after her very first practice in an early concept of our upcoming performance football boot. This is the disruptive power of LightSpray. On a football boot, LightSpray does something that no other boot has done: it puts almost nothing between the foot and the ball.”
It’s clear that On’s initial efforts in soccer will be focused on top of the line premium cleats with a LightSpray upper (they currently offer two different styles of LightSpray men’s shoes – the Cloudmonster 3 Hyper for $280 and the Cloudboom Strike 2 for $310). They have no interest in competing with lower end (~$100) soccer cleats sold by Nike and Adidas, let alone the endless list of brands sold through sites like Amazon for even less. On enters the market with a clear focus on selling to a select group of soccer players who are willing to pay a premium for the highest quality boot they can make.
This should sound familiar, because it mirrors what they’ve done in running, tennis, etc. As co-founder Caspar Coppetti has said about On’s early days, “Passionate runners were investing more into their gear every year. They were willing to pay for progress. They were the most valuable customers in the running category, but no brand catered to them exclusively. That was the moment where it all made sense to us. We would disrupt running with innovation, and we would only sell at the premium end of the market.”
Critically, On consistently acts in a way that reinforces it’s premium brand image. To paraphrase management, operating in that manner is simple in principle, yet demanding in practice, and powerful because it compounds.
As management noted, On has the industry’s lowest discount rates and the highest average selling prices (“since 2023, we have taken ASPs from $145 to $170”). On the latter figure, they also noted their U.S. wholesale ASPs are ~40% higher than their peer average. In a more mature category for On like Running, the company’s pricing architecture has evolved to cover a broader range of price points, with success driving “better” / “best” SKU adoption: