Case study: ON
It’s ON’s world and we are just living in it
I didn’t think much about ON. Until I did, a lot.
ON currently forecasts 32% sales increase from last year, expecting them to exceed $2.6 billion compared to last year. With market cap of $18.23 billion as of February 2025, ON is doing well. These results stand out especially in the retail landscape where companies are happy that their losses are not as big as projected.
It would be easy to peg ON’s growth on the Federer link, or a recognizable product, or the weakness of the incumbents. The big picture is that ON introduced the brand-building playbook that feels very new, while hitting all the fundamentals.
This is especially refreshing at the time when DTC brands and celebrities alike showed that it’s possible to scale a “brand” with a mediocre product when there is a shortcut to scalable customer acquisition (Meta advertising, Kim Kardashian). It is also refreshing to see it at the time of many legacy brands struggling to figure out who they are for, why they are here, and why no one goes to their stores.
ON is a creative, bold and differentiated brand in the world that lacks them.
But ON’s missing a cultural strategy. Cultural strategy refers to a coherent and long-term cultural influence that a brand exerts through its cultural product portfolio, the narrative that keeps them together, and media amplification.
Combined with sponsorships, events, brand voice, content, and intersections with other cultural categories (food, hospitality, experiences, entertainment and leisure activities), cultural products create brand currency.
This currency is especially relevant now that brands are consumed with everything else in culture: movies, music, art, entertainment, experiences, content, photography, design … ). They have to participate through cultural products in all these different areas while staying true to their overarching cultural narrative. This participation lends brands cultural credibility.
Product. There isn’t a sneaker that is as recognizable as ON. Even if you hid the logo, you’d know who made it. With its unique design, ON immediately stands out, which has a simultaneous product and brand benefit. As a product benefit, ON’s product
The best part of this analysis is on the Sociology of Business, head over there to read the rest!
