The archive · Business Models · Strategic decision · 2021–2022
On's Cyclon sells running shoes by subscription — return worn Cloudneos for new ones
Swiss running brand On makes its recyclable Cloudneo subscription-only: pay monthly, run, send the worn shoe back to be rebuilt.
On
What it had to solve
To make a recyclable performance shoe credible, On needed every pair back at end of life — but retail sales scatter shoes across the world where no collection exists.
How it works
In 2021 Swiss running brand On announced Cyclon: a performance shoe that would never be sold, only subscribed. Subscribers pay a monthly fee, run in the Cloudneo, and when the shoe is worn out they send it back, where it is broken down and rebuilt into a new pair. 'Subscribe, run, recycle, repeat' was the loop.
The design challenge and the business model were the same challenge. The Cloudneo is a mono-material shoe made largely from bio-based castor-bean material, with a one-piece upper designed to leave no waste — but that circularity only works if the brand can physically retrieve every shoe. Subscription guaranteed the return, so the shoe was never sold at retail.
By August 2022 the first US subscribers had received their Cloudneos, which On and its press called the first subscription-based, fully recyclable performance running shoe. In November 2022 the service opened in China through a WeChat mini-program, with instalment and one-time payment options, cementing Cyclon as a deliberate business-model experiment rather than a marketing stunt.
Why it lands
- A recyclable shoe is only circular if it comes back; subscription, unlike retail, makes the return part of the paid relationship.
- Recurring revenue smooths cash flow for a shoe built to be disassembled, whose materials are worth more inside a closed loop than on a shelf.
- Controlling the fleet lets On refresh materials and design each generation of Cloudneo as recycling technology improves.
- Selling miles rather than shoes reframes the customer relationship from one-off purchase to an ongoing service — a differentiation no retail competitor could copy by pricing alone.
What it did
In August 2022 On shipped the first Cloudneo pairs to its initial US subscribers — calling it the first subscription-based, fully recyclable performance running shoe — and opened the Cyclon service in China that November.
What you can take
When a product's environmental promise depends on getting it back, subscription beats ownership — the recurring fee is the return infrastructure that keeps the material loop closed.
Since then
After the US and China launches, On positioned Cyclon as the route to its stated goal of becoming fully circular and fossil-free, with every product returned for reuse, recycling or repurposing. It also signed a two-year partnership with polyester recycler Carbios alongside Patagonia, Puma and Salomon to develop fibre-to-fibre recycling, telling investors the model would extend beyond footwear in future.
Sources
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