On signs Kylian Mbappé to lead its first push into soccer footwear

On has signed Kylian Mbappé, the company announced on Friday, marking the Swiss athletic brand's formal entry into soccer for the first time. Mbappé signed with Nike as a child at the start of his career, making the move a direct switch of allegiance in a category Nike and Adidas have long dominated.

The signing is the headline move in a broader roster build. FC Barcelona and Swiss national team forward Sydney Schertenleib, who joined On as an ambassador last year, will now also work on product development and testing for the brand's football line.

Thierry Henry, the soccer pundit who has worked with On since 2025, is now the company's director of football. Between Mbappé's star power, Schertenleib's design input and Henry's new title, On is assembling the kind of football-specific structure that Nike, Adidas and Puma have built over decades.

On is a Swiss athletic footwear and apparel company founded in 2010, built its reputation on running shoes engineered for performance and comfort. Soccer is a different proposition: a sport dominated by two giants with entrenched club relationships, athlete ecosystems and, crucially, purchase decisions still driven by performance credibility rather than fashion.

What analysts make of the move

BMO Capital Markets analysts Kelly Crago and Owen Tunstill called the Mbappé signing a strong start, noting that smaller rivals have tried and failed to move the needle in soccer with lower-profile endorsements. They named Skechers and New Balance as brands whose entries have not shifted market share.

Evercore ISI's Michael Binetti expects On to lean on lifestyle designs alongside performance gear, pointing to the brand's existing focus on fashion and the thin margins on cleats and licensed fanwear. He also flagged that soccer is far more consolidated than the running market where On has already succeeded.

Jefferies analysts led by Randal Konik offered the sharpest note of caution, arguing the scale of the signing shows how much On has had to spend simply to get a foothold in soccer. They compared it to Under Armour's partnership with Steph Curry, a star who never made the brand dominant in his sport.

Jefferies said football consumers buy boots from brands with decades of performance credibility, and that Nike, Adidas and Puma have spent years building athlete ecosystems, club relationships and product legitimacy that a single signing cannot replicate. Launching a line is one thing, they said; persuading players to switch is another.

The Jefferies team added that if consumers do not see On as a genuine performance football brand, premium-priced football footwear will struggle to gain traction regardless of who wears it on the pitch. That is the risk under Friday's announcement.

What the athletes said

Mbappé framed the move as building something from scratch rather than joining an established programme. "From the beginning, what drew me to On was the opportunity to build something entirely new together that will help shape tomorrow's game," he said in a statement carried by the brand.

He added that he wants to bring his own experience and perspective into what the brand creates, to push what is possible through innovation, and to stay true to what he called the joy of football. "We have a shared dream, and this is only the beginning," he said.

Schertenleib, for her part, kept her comments focused on the sport rather than the business logic, saying she appreciated the chance to help On make its football debut. Neither athlete addressed the competitive stakes that analysts were weighing within hours of the announcement.

We have tracked On Running's rise from a Swiss running specialist into a brand competing on fashion credibility as much as performance, a positioning that shapes how it is now approaching soccer. That same fashion-forward instinct is what Evercore's Binetti expects to define its football range.

We have also followed Nike's own turbulence closely this year, from a Walmart executive hired as chief commercial officer months after the role was cut, to a supply chain veteran installed to fix Converse, to Nike's removal alongside Simon Property Group from the S&P 100 Index after an eighteen-year run.

That backdrop matters here. On is picking a fight with a rival that has spent much of the year absorbing setbacks of its own, even as Nike brought in LVMH's Alexandre Arnault to its board to help steer a turnaround still very much in progress.

No source has set a date for On's first football product launch or named the specific markets it will target first. The company has confirmed the signings and the roles; what a Mbappé-fronted On football boot actually looks like, and when it reaches shelves, remains undisclosed.

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Images: Courtesy of On; On