Yes, you read it right. Cloudprime’s CleanCloud EVA foam uses carbon emissions as their raw material. The vision of ON is to have products that are fossil-free and fully circular in the future. To accomplish this, ON collaborates with some of the most innovative suppliers, biotech and production partners.
These high performance running shoes designed for athletes feature ON’s signature Cloud – cloud-like bubble soles dedicated to comfy landings and springy take-offs. The perforated upper is colored in blue-purple gradients like most ON shoes.
Cloudprime is the result of a collaboration between six brands over the course of five years of research. Four of those brands were LanzaTech, Borealis, Technip Energies and Novoloop who form the supply chain coalition that manufactures CleanCloud.
Utilizing a fermentation process from a bespoke recipe of bacteria, LanzaTech converts harmful carbon monoxide into ethanol, then converted into ethylene by Technip Energies. Borealis then polymerizes into plastic pellets of EVA.
From there onwards, ON partners with Novoloop to turn this thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) byproduct into its CleanCloud outsole. ON then collaborates with French start-up Fairbrics to produce a complementary textile upper that is also made of carbon emissions, yielding a shoe that’s almost entirely constructed from would-be carbon waste.
Hopefully, these shoes will pave the way for a more sustainable and circular future. Not just for ON joining the likes of Nike, Adidas, and ASICS, but for the entire running shoe industry. While we wait for a pair of Cloudprime, there’s the ON Cloudmonster, one of the most popular running shoes on the market.