Shadowing Practice: How On Running Shoes Are Taking On Nike And Adidas - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Here in Zurich, a Swiss sneaker company is taking on Nike.
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We couldn't be happier for where we are as a brand after 15 years. And, it all started quite simple actually.
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The brand On sells premium-priced athletic wear and is quickly gaining ground on legacy competitors.
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The way the shoe looks is like nothing else on the shelf.
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I think that the problem with Nike is On Holding.
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I'm not kidding. This is the first true challenger to Nike.
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Since going public in 2021, the company's net sales have grown in 11 out of the past 13 quarters, and On's stock price has soared ahead of its competitors. In its most recent earnings report, the company posted net sales of over $865 million for the quarter.
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The company is growing like a weed.
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We all know about the running shoes, which everybody's gaga for, and they're just expanding the brand.
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At the same time, On's biggest competitor, Nike, has faced stalling growth.
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As of March 2025, Nike posted a sales decline in two of its last four quarters.
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Adidas has also faced challenges in recent years and has ended its controversial partnership with Kanye West. But, On is also under pressure as tariffs proposed by the White House threaten to raise prices. In 2024, the U.S.
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accounted for almost 60% of On's revenue.
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Around 90% of On's products are manufactured in Vietnam, which President Trump has said could face a 46% import duty. Nike is also undergoing a turnaround under its new CEO, Elliott Hill.
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The company is aiming to win back market share it lost during the past few years.
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Nike's biggest threat is if Nike spends 1% of their sales on marketing and On spends 1% of their sales on marketing. That's the difference of billions of dollars. So, you're going toe to toe with someone that has a much bigger megaphone.
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So, how did On go from a startup to becoming one of the biggest global challengers in sportswear?
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And can the company maintain its rapid growth despite pressure from tariffs and competitors?
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CNBC visited On's headquarters in Zurich to get a behind the scenes look at the company and how its new spray-on technology can make a pair of sneakers in just minutes.
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It allows us to produce an upper material in a completely automated way.
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Marc Maurer is one of On's co-CEOs.
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We have one single material that is approximately one mile long, which is being sprayed around the last.
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One shoe is made in just three minutes, a fraction of the time it takes to create a traditional running sneaker.
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A traditional product is usually touched by approximately 200 hands, and it's going through various various steps, and it consists of many, many different individual parts, which is very, very different.
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The technique is still in its early stages, only producing a limited number of shoes in one style. The model doesn't have any laces, and it sells for $330.
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What we want to be able to do is to bring it from a couple of thousand pairs to millions of pairs.
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But, analysts say what has propelled the brand is the unique design of its main running shoe line, which feature large hollow pads in the sole that provide extra cushioning.
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My absolute ride or dies are the On Cloudmonsters.
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They are my favorite shoes of all time, and I only got them a few months ago.
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So, this might be the new daily trainer.
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When you look back into 2010, all the running shoes looked more or less the same.
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So, basically you could almost not compare what an ASICS is, or a Brooks is or a Sauconys.
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We thought about how can we stand out?
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But, On shoes weren't always taken seriously as high-end performance products.
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When they first started, they were basically giving the product to anybody that would take it.
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The first generation of running shoes that was intended to be a performance shoe was not received as such, and the feedback that we heard from retailers as well as consumers was that it was more of a lifestyle shoe. It was comfortable, it was nice to wear for daily use, but it was not highly rated for serious runs.
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To elevate its brand image On doubled down on performance and company-owned stores.
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The strategy to engage both serious athletes and casual wearers seems to have paid off in 2024.
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Olympic medalist Hellen Obiri won the Boston Marathon in the then-unreleased LightSpray shoes.
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I think the main thing that they really understood was they went for the esthetic of the shoe.
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That is what drove the initial success.
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The trajectory of them getting to $1 billion versus Nike. They did it in one eighth the time of Nike.
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So, Nike better wake up and realize that On is a performance shoe that has also taken on a fashion element.
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Analysts say another factor driving sales is that On's products are geared towards wealthy shoppers.
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A typical pair of its running shoes sells for $150 or more.
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They're not interested in ever having a low-end price point and ever being in low-end retail, so they're well situated there because people are willing to pay more for a pair of running shoes because they have more use cases for them, and they see it more as an everyday shoe.
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The company has also been able to attract new customers through partnerships with athletes like Roger Federer, as well as celebrities like Zendaya and FKA Twigs.
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It has also partnered with luxury brands like Loewe.
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We're often playing in a more premium space, almost a little bit in the space where Nike stops and, but not luxury is not yet.
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Analysts say that timing played a key role in On's rapid rise. During Covid lockdowns, recreational running increased and athleisure boomed.
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Athletic shoe usage just picked up dramatically.
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We were at home. We were doing more sports, going out for walks more.
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We weren't dressing formal for about two years, right? It was luck as well as design that got them that huge scale.
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Around the launch of On's IPO, Nike also aggressively scaled back retail partnerships with Macy's, Footlocker and Dick's Sporting Goods.
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It does appear, according to analysts, that Nike overrotated toward the direct-to-consumer.
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And then, when it came back, time for Americans and folks around the world to go shopping again after Covid, Nike just didn't have the same kind of priority in placement on the shelves, and it didn't have the styles that were really resonating with consumers.
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So, for the first time, retailers were actually going out there and looking for emerging high-growth brands to take that space, and On was right there for them. So, it happened to be very serendipitous for them to be able to get that retail space, prime retail space that the number one competitor had voluntarily just dropped and left for them to gain.
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Meanwhile, On continued to post quarterly revenue beats, boosting its stock.
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Deckers-owned Hoka also surged, while Nike declined.
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Nike has since kind of acknowledged that mistake through their actions and are trying to go back to that channel. On effectively acknowledges that that was a big break for them.
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The issue now, though, as it relates to sort of the broader competitive space, is that they've already been given that oxygen.
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Nike still owns 40% of the global sports footwear market, followed by Adidas.
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On makes up a little less than 3% of global market share. But, that share has increased eightfold since 2019.
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Anyone who says they're not worried about slipping of market share is lying to you or me, or both. People care about market share, but that doesn't mean that they're worried they're not going to get it back.
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Nike has a new CEO, has been tasked with a with a turnaround plan at that company.
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There's an expectation, at least among investors, that at some point it starts to grow again. What does that mean for On?
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It doesn't change what we do.
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Um, so we focus on our products, on innovation.
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Nike is also returning to retail stores, and in April 2025, Adidas posted revenue growth of 13% compared to the same quarter last year.
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CNBC reached out to Nike and Adidas for comment, which did not respond by the time the story went online.
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For On, apparel could be the next growth frontier.
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Nike and Adidas make up over a quarter of their revenue from t-shirts, shorts and other apparel items. Currently, On's clothing offerings make up a little over 4% of its business.
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On also plans to double its store count from 53 to 100 in the coming years.
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Currently, the company has 11 stores in the U.S.
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But, could those expansion plans be impacted by tariffs? On designs its products here in Switzerland. But like other major brands, including Nike, most of its products are manufactured in Vietnam and Indonesia, where labor is considerably cheaper than in Europe or the U.S. In April, President Trump announced tariffs on both countries.
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I will sign a historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world.
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Both of these have been suspended and it's unclear if they will remain in place.
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Any additional cost could be a significant headwind for the sportswear industry.
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Sportswear giant Adidas now saying that tariffs would result in price hikes for all of its U.S.
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products. People thought if we go to Vietnam, we're safe. And, it was just dead wrong.
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One of Trump's goals is to move production domestically, but experts say that is highly unlikely, especially for sneakers, a high-cost, labor-intensive item.
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Then, there's the question just what does labor cost?
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And invariably labor in the U.S.
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is, I imagine, in most places, going to cost more than it is in a lot of other places.
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Andrew, we are not going to make sneakers in the U.S.
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You can't move your supply chains overnight.
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We just don't really have the ability. We don't have the labor force. We don't have the the capabilities.
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We don't have the materials to start up a this industry at scale in the United States.
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On has not shared whether it plans to move production due to tariffs, but says the cost may be passed on to the consumer.
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And if that happens in the end, I think we will try to bring the best possible offering to our consumers.
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On is a premium brand.
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On has pricing power in the market, and so most likely what you will see in the industry is that tariffs will just be passed on to the consumers over time.
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Analysts say On may be well positioned to withstand the impact of tariffs, and the brand's success hinges on maintaining its edge.
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They're already thinking about becoming a 10 billion franc brand, and what's beyond that?
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This is, I think, still kind of early innings for the brand at this point.
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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?
This video offers a dynamic mix of business, technology, and lifestyle vocabulary, making it ideal for shadowing practice. The conversational tone—with phrases like "growing like a weed" and "ride or dies"—mirrors real-world English, helping you master natural fluency. Discussing On's rise also introduces industry terms ("net sales," "import duty") and casual expressions, perfect for building versatility. Whether you’re practicing shadow speak to improve pronunciation or aiming to sound more confident in professional discussions, this content bridges everyday and specialized language.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
- "has grown in 11 out of the past 13 quarters": This present perfect tense highlights ongoing growth, a common structure in business updates. Practice using it to describe trends (e.g., "Our team has completed 8 out of 10 projects this year").
- "a fraction of the time it takes to create": The phrase "a fraction of" emphasizes smallness. Use it to compare quantities (e.g., "This app takes a fraction of the time to load compared to the old version").
- "doubled down on performance": "Doubled down" means to focus intensely. It’s a vivid idiom for showing commitment (e.g., "The company doubled down on sustainability efforts").
Common Pronunciation Traps
The video features words with tricky stress and vowel sounds. For example, "Zurich" is pronounced "ZOO-rik" (not "ZUR-ik"), and "athleisure" stresses the first syllable ("ATH-leh-zhur"). The phrase "toe to toe" requires clear "t" sounds to avoid blending into "toe too toe." Additionally, the Swiss accent in the dialogue may soften some consonants (e.g., "approximately" as "uh-PROK-suh-mit-lee"). Use a shadowing site to mimic these nuances—repeating phrases like "spray-on technology" and "hollow pads" will help you match the rhythm and intonation.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have grown · has faced · has also faced |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are manufactured · being sprayed · is made |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone that has · long, which is · parts, which is |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.