“We looked at literally every element of the shoe. We’ve gone further than we’ve ever gone and we think this shoe will take our athletes further than they’ve ever been.”
The Cloudboom Echo is the result of years of hard work, both in the lab and on run. In pursuit of pure performance, we took no shortcuts and made no compromises. Every element was carefully considered and we tested over one hundred prototypes in making this shoe.
Thanks to the unique combination of a carbon Speedboard®, responsive CloudTec® cushioning, a barely-there upper and some serious Swiss engineering, it’s light, fast, comfortable and performs better over the marathon distance than any shoe we’ve ever made.
But don’t take our word for it. This claim is backed up not just by the elite athletes we work with but also by a rigorous study conducted at an independent external institute.
Tests show that the Cloudboom Echo induces outstanding running economy, allowing athletes to run at their usual speed while saving energy. It performs as well as, if not better than, leading marathon shoes in terms of efficiency and perceived comfort too.
“The Cloudboom Echo is a huge step forward for our racing shoes,” says Dathan Ritzenhein, OAC coach and three-time Olympian.
“It’s On's fastest shoe. While wearing it, I have noticed less foot and leg fatigue and a springier stride,” Tristin Van Ord (On ZAP Endurance)
When our fastest runners realize a career-long ambition of competing at the Games, they know they’ll be doing it in gear they can trust. Here’s how we made it.
Step 1. Get athletes involved
All of our performance shoes are a collaboration between our creators in the On lab and our athletes. Feedback from our elite runners informs all key decisions. Just collecting and collating their comments is a task itself.
But for the Cloudboom Echo, we made an even greater effort to make sure that input from world champions like Javi Gomez Noya and Helen Jenkins, Olympic gold winners like Nicola Spirig, marathon record breakers like Rachel Cliff and future Olympians like Jake Riley was at the heart of all that we did. In fact, we got input from 15 different athletes.
“We compiled reports, data, insight — anything and everything that our athletes gave us we tried to use. Whether it was the shape of the heel, the materials, the foam, the tongue, the upper, the laces – you name it, we looked at it,” Olli Hirvonen, shoe designer.
From their input, it became clear that they wanted a shoe with extra cushioning and impact absorption in the forefoot and heel, a curved Speedboard for increased propulsion and energy conversion, as well as a nearly weightless feel. With the key goals identified, our team got to work.