On has opened a new footwear production facility in Zurich.

On Wednesday, the Swiss athletic brand’s three co-founders, Caspar Coppetti, David Allemann, and Olivier Bernhard, unveiled the company’s new LightSpray factory.

According to On, the new factory features four robots that can manufacture all the uppers for the brand’s performance running shoes in a fully automated and industrially scalable process in just three minutes.

The company noted that the LightSpray technology uses a robot arm and 1.5 kilometers of filament to produce an ultra-light one-piece upper in a “highly efficient” process that saves both space and time, minimizes waste and produces an upper with 75 percent fewer carbon emissions than On’s other racing shoes.

“We’re incredibly proud to have achieved this milestone in the On and LightSpray story,” Coppetti said in a statement. “It’s innovations like this, developed and perfected by our Zurich-based teams, that have helped us from the very beginning to earn our global success. And LightSpray is the epitome of the kind of product that makes On what it is: innovation made in Switzerland, for the world.”

On noted that its new LightSpray technology was developed and brought to product maturity in Zurich over four years by a multi-faceted team of some 20 personnel. This comes as On has been steadily creating jobs at its headquarters in Switzerland since the company was founded 15 years ago. Over 1,100 people are employed in Zurich, more than 300 of them in research and development, where they continue to drive innovation in product and materials development, sports science, and design.

“Swiss innovation doesn’t just happen,” Joël Mesot, president of ETH Zurich, one of the world’s foremost research universities, said in a keynote address during the opening of the new LightSpray facility on Wednesday. “Collaboration, investment in education and research, boldness and openness remain the best guarantors of continued success, even in today’s far-from-certain times.”

The opening of the Zurich factory follows last summer’s reveal of the LightSpray technology at the Olympic Games in Paris. Further production facilities are planned worldwide. ​

To celebrate the opening of the new facility, On is holding a series of open days at its Zurich headquarters. Sports fans, innovation aficionados and further interested parties can visit On’s premises at Förrlibuckstrasse 190 between July 3 and 6 to view the new robots, try out the LightSpray shoes and attend a range of workshops and panel discussions.