The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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On founders faced mandatory share forfeiture for any side income
“We actually wrote in our shareholders agreement, and it lived there all the way through the IPO. We put down this thing when if someone, someone of us took another job or, you know, even like a side hustle or any income from any other source, we would have to …”
Coppetti conditioned joining On on ousting co-creator George Brunsweiler
“And so I made a pretty bold move and said, yes, I'm going to get involved, but without you, George.”
Guy Raz: On is the first brand to challenge Nike and Adidas
“It's the first, really the first shoe brand to challenge the dominance of Nike and Adidas, certainly with running.”
On's partnership agreement with Roger Federer fit on a single page
“Literally our agreement fit on one page. And it had none of the usual clauses, like no minimum days that he has to you know, spend with us. No, no licensing fee, nothing.”
On only pursues product concepts considered impossible to build
“I think it's so deeply ingrained nowadays in the company that we only approach things that are impossible. If people are coming back, you know, after initial idea or vision, and people come back and say, oh, yeah, we can do it. I said, then we don't do it. Lea…”
On was likely the first running shoe to embed a rigid plate
“We were probably the first brand using plate, a plate in the shoe, we call it speed board.”
Coppetti: Trying to compete directly with Nike is suicide
“And frankly, you know, if you look at the Under Armour story, to try to compete directly with Nike is suicide.”
On secured roughly 500,000 CHF in orders at its first trade show
“And so we went to the show in January, literally like a couple days after we started the company with, I don't know, five, six samples. And we left the show with, or I would say about half a million Swiss francs in orders.”
Bernhard's garden hose prototype cured his chronic Achilles issues in six weeks
“Again, I have had my Achilles issues for maybe three, three and a half years to at the end of my career. And I've seen so many doctors and specialists and nothing really helped. And within six weeks walking and running in the garden hose shoes, since today, th…”
On launched without writing a business plan or sizing the market
“We never did a business plan. We never did like a proper market sizing. All we knew was this is a big market.”
On founders resented customers wearing their high-tech shoes with jeans
“We were going to be a running company, and actually, it pissed us off. When somebody dared to wear our high-tech product industry with jeans, it really bucked us.”
On launched with 300k CHF cash and 150k CHF sweat equity
“Yeah, so we each put the 150,000 in, and Oli didn't have the cash, so we basically Took his efforts so far into the company and valid that at 150. So, so that's how we started.”
On buys Google search ads for "QC" due to logo confusion
“We actually, you know, buy the QC. Keyword on, on, on Google.”
On generated $1 million in revenue in its first six months
“Yeah, we did a million in the first half year, which, you know, was obviously great.”
On produced its first 8,000 to 10,000 shoes in South Korea
“I think it was like 10,000 or 8000 shoes we produced in Busan in South Korea.”
On had roughly 160 million in revenue when Roger Federer approached
“At the time we were about a hundred sixty million in revenues.”
On achieved profitability in 2014 and has stayed profitable
“2014 was the year that we actually then broke our first profit, and we've been profitable ever since.”
On search traffic doubled permanently after announcing Roger Federer partnership
“When Roger came on board and we announced it in New York, Search traffic doubled and stayed there.”
On launched across six countries on day one due to market size
“So we knew on day one that we couldn't be just a Swiss company. So, so we started out in six countries at once.”
On secured early retail sales by running with store owners
“Casper and I, we you know, attacked the German, Austrian, and Swiss market. I think it was year one and two. Not very successful until I think it was Casper coming, you know, and saying, hey, all these retailers are actually, you know, they're runners, you kno…”