Yahoo News On Running launches a fully recyclable shoe you can subscribe to
Swiss brand On Running has launched a new subscription service for the Cyclon – a new, fully recyclable performance shoe. In what’s thought to be a world first, runners signing up will pay £25 per month to receive replacement shoes when the current ones wear out. Once you tell the brand they need to be replaced, On sends out a new pair and takes the old ones back.
But the subscription element is not the only noteworthy aspect of the Cyclon – it’s also 100 per cent recyclable. The upper material is derived from castor beans and is made from a single cut of yarn, resulting in zero waste, while no dyes are used to colour the upper (it only comes in white). The brand says it’s a zero-waste product, meaning that used, returned Cyclon shoes will be broken down and turned into raw materials for new products.
‘Making a fully recyclable shoe is one thing. We went a step further. We wanted to show that sustainability and performance can go hand in hand,’ says Olivier Bernhard, On’s co-founder.
How does the Cyclon subscription service work?
A payment of £25 gets you access to the Cyclon service and acts as a first payment. It’s a first-come, first-served service, with On saying they will deliver the shoes once minimum demand in a region is met, in order to ship in bulk and reduce environmental costs. For the UK, this is 5,000 subscribers.
Once you’ve got the shoes and worn them out, you let On know you need a new pair via your account and it will send you them. You put your old shoes into the box the new ones come in and send them back to the brand via an included returns label.
On says it expects the shoe to provide optimum performance up to 400km (around 250 miles), and will replace the shoe twice a year. That works out at £150 per pair, which is fairly typical for tech-heavy performance shoes, but with the significant added benefit of full recyclability. On says it believes the future of running shoes is subscription-based.
What’s the Cyclon shoe like?
The shoe won’t be released until Autumn 2021, but On describes it as ‘made for training and racing at speed’, and is keen to emphasise that having a fully recyclable shoe doesn’t have to mean compromising on performance.
It will weigh just 200g, with a heel-toe drop of 8mm. Unusually for On, it doesn’t feature the brand’s signature CloudTec ‘pods’ on the sole – the Cyclon’s midsole has a sleeker profile with a curved toe spring, and is made from a new Pebax-based foam which On says is feather light and offers outstanding energy return, better than the brand’s existing Helion foam. Inside the midsole is a stiffer Speedboard plate to ensure a quicker push-off.
Sign up for the Cyclon subscription service here.
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