On Holding AG’s three co-founders are backing the idiom “putting your money where your mouth is” by investing in shares of On stock.
The three — David Allemann, Casper Coppetti, and Olivier Bernhard — each acquired 60,000 shares of Class A stock at $2.2 million, or an aggregate of 180,000 share for purchase price totaling $6.6 million, last Thursday.
Company executives typically make sizable purchases fo company stock when they want to send a message to Wall Street that they believe in the future of their firms. Last month, Nike Inc. CEO Elliott Hill and lead director and Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as director and Ariel Capital Management founder, John W. Rogers, bought Class B common stock in Swoosh, with the combined purchases totaling 52,660 shares, or $2.3 million.
The purchase comes at a time when Wall Street earlier this year raised concerns about pressures ahead in 2026, even though they thought over the longer term that On remains a growth story. Those concerns were raised in February, ahead of On’s fourth quarter report on March 3.
Needham’s Tom Nikic said he expects brand awareness to grow globally. But he also suggested that perhaps the tariff impact, a partial headwind in the fourth quarter, could by felt fully in the first quarter of 2026 due to higher duties on Vietnamese imports. Almost none of the company’s products are sourced from China. He also expected growing markets in Asia and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) are likely to contribute more to growth than North America.
Jefferies analyst Randal J. Konik saw the North American market as a “yellow” flag, with the Americas representing 64 percent of total sales that is now seen as maturing market. He also questions wholesale tailwinds now that Nike’s running business appears to be in turnaround mode.
There were also concerns connected to the company changing its chief executive officers twice in one year.
Despite some tariff challenges, On posted first quarter results on May 12 where net income skyrocketed 82.2 percent to 103.3 million Swiss francs on a net sales increase of 14.5 percent to 831.9 million Swiss francs.
And Allemann, who is serving as co-CEO with Coppetti following the exit of Martin Hoffman on May 1 for a planned sabbatical, told FN’s sister brand WWD that he doesn’t see any slowdown in the business. He noted to “meaningful runway in every channel.”
During the conference call to investors and analysts, Coppetti said the brand’s LightSpray shoe, the Cloudmonster Hyper, is in demand, and that the launch of the shoe’s production at its Busan factory in South Korea in February allowed On to increase production capacity “thirty-fold.” He also spoke about the opening of a new store in Boston in April, as well as the brand’s new innovation, Surreal, a new Superfoam for everyday runner that weighs half as much of the industry standard EVA while providing 60 percent to 70 percent more energy return. Surreal is slated to debut with Cloudsurfer 3 this October, followed by a roll out across to key everyday running franchises in 2027.
“On’s founders are laser-focused on building the world’s most premium global sportswear brand,” the company said of the stock purchases last week. “Their purchase of additional shares reflects their conviction in On’s journey ahead and their deep commitment to the company they founded and have led together for more than 16 years.”
Shares of On closed on Monday at up nearly 2.3 percent to $38.10.
