Dive Brief:
- Swiss athletic sportswear brand On opened its newest U.S. retail store Thursday in Miami, bringing its total storecount to 27.
- The 3,229 square-foot store in Miami’s upscale Design District was built to reflect the region’s tropical outdoor elements and cultural artistic heritage.
- The Miami store features an immersive eight-foot wall featuring hidden drawers that allow customers to quickly see and try on the style and size of the athletic shoes they are interested in. The store also features a Swiss alpine boulder, which was designed in collaboration with sustainability-focused artist Lucas Muñoz Muñoz and produced as a 3D-scanned recreation.
Dive Insight:
The opening of On’s store in Miami continues a major expansion by the brand. The brand earlier this month said it plans to increase the pace of owned store growth, planning to open 20 to 25 stores per year. Roughly half of those stores will be in China, where it currently has 19 locations.
Still slated to open this year in Europe are stores in London and Paris. The London location is about 3,300 square feet and located in the city’s East End at Spitalfields shopping center. Scheduled to open Nov. 3, the store will offer apparel, footwear and accessories.
On plans to open three new U.S. locations next year in Chicago, Austin and Portland, Oregon, where the brand has an office.
“We continue to see an appetite from our consumers and fans for physical retail experiences,” Marc Maurer, co-chief executive officer at On, said in an email to Retail Dive. “These stores are where we have our most intimate touchpoints with our athletes and fans, and we can give them the most premium representation of our brand. It’s about more than a product. Many of our stores serve as hubs for the local communities, hosting weekly run clubs and other local events.”
In addition to its growing roster of company-owned stores, On has partnerships with more than 9,800 stores in over 60 countries globally. Part of that multi-channel distribution strategy includes growing its retail presence and footprint in China.
“The retail landscape in China is incredibly unique, as it doesn’t have the traditional run specialty retailers we often see in other markets,” Maurer said. “As we’ve grown, we’ve built a community of fans worldwide, and we want to connect with them and create meaningful retail experiences wherever they are. To do that, we’ll continue expanding our footprint across all of our retail channels, focusing on increasing our presence in China.”
On has been on an impressive growth trajectory since its IPO in September 2021. Earlier this month, the company said it hopes to double net sales between 2023 and 2026 to at least 3.55 billion Swiss francs (about $3.9 billion at the time of the announcement). The brand in August reported its Q2 2023 results were its sixth consecutive record top-line quarter, reaching net sales of 444.3 million Swiss francs ($506.5 million at the time).
Beyond the stated ambitions for 2026, On has set long-term targets, including achieving an apparel share of 10% or more, an own retail share of 10% or more and a China share of 10% or more in relation to its overall net sales, per the company.
