Swiss run shoe brand On and Swiss designer Alex Thilo Brunner have won the prestigious Design Prize Switzerland. Working in partnership with On, the young Swiss designer Thilo Alex Brunner convinced the international jury to honour On shoes in the Best Market Product category.
The jury consists of top-class connoisseurs of the world of design who had to choose out of 300 award candidates. Having awarded the prize to On, the jury stated “The market for running shoes is overcrowded and hotly contested – so when a new brand comes along and takes the market by storm, the innovation behind it must convey a promise which it manages to keep – a shoe with qualities never heard of before.”
The jury continued, “In this case a clever design idea has proved capable of competing against the million-strong budgets which the big brands in the industry assign to research and marketing. The straightforward design of the shoe deliberately refrains from indulgence in stylistic frills, and is wholly consistent in focusing on the basic functional requirements. The attention is drawn to the sole, which here constitutes the crucially important element.”
On notes that ‘soft impact as on sand, firm push-off as on the race track’ are core ideas behind its running shoe and its shoe sole technology. The innovation of this young Swiss company, which is still less than three years old, aims to unite the advantages of a soft training shoe with those of a hard racing flat.
