Can running shoes be made by a spray gun? That’s the idea behind LightSpray, a new manufacturing technique created by Swiss sneaker company On.
“It allows us to produce an upper material in a completely automated way,” said Marc Maurer, On’s former co-CEO who recently left the company. “A traditional product is touched by approximately 200 hands, which is very different here.”
The upper part of the shoe is formed as a robot sprays a synthetic material called polymer onto a rotating foot-shaped mold. The process takes about three minutes per shoe. The final product doesn’t have seams or laces and fits like a sock.
“What we want to be able to do is to bring it from a couple of thousand pairs to millions of pairs,” said Maurer.
The company announced this month that it is opening its first LightSpray factory in Zurich featuring four of the robots.
Analysts said innovations like LightSpray have given On a competitive edge. So how does it work?
