Swiss sportswear brand On announced Thursday that it was operating a LightSpray robotic manufacturing facility in Busan, the company’s second such site, after opening its first in Zurich in July last year.
At the center of the expansion is LightSpray, a proprietary technology that compresses what has traditionally been a roughly 200-step shoe upper production process into a single, fully automated system. Specially engineered robots spray a 1.5-kilometer filament onto a mold, forming an ultralight, seamless upper in about three minutes.
The company said the streamlined system reduces waste generated during production and lowers carbon emissions compared with conventional manufacturing methods.
The new Busan-area facility is equipped with 32 fully automated robots. The company said this will expand its global LightSpray production capacity by about 30 times.
“LightSpray allows us to precisely program robots in any region to complete each shoe’s unique design and fit,” said Scott Maguire, chief innovation officer at On. “Korea is an ideal location where we can simultaneously learn and execute for global expansion.”
The brand also unveiled the “LightSpray Cloudmonster 3 Hyper,” the first model to feature an upper sprayed at the Korea facility. Positioned as a super trainer for long-distance and tempo running, the shoe bears the phrase “Sprayed in Korea” on the inside of the insole, underscoring the origin of its production.
A company official added, “This factory demonstrates that the technology and processes developed in Switzerland can be implemented in global environments while maintaining the same level of quality. Korea’s advanced manufacturing infrastructure will play an important role in upgrading our processes as we expand worldwide.”
yoohong@heraldcorp.com
