SPRAY-ON SNEAKER CREATED BY ROBOT IN 6 MINUTES WILL MAKE HISTORY AT 2024 OLYMPICS

Matt Case - July 16th, 2024 - 10:01am PDT 

Kenyan Runner Hellen Obiri to Make History with Spray-On Sneakers at 2024 Olympics

NEW YORK  — Hellen Obiri, the Kenyan distance runner and two-time Olympic silver medalist, will make history at the 2024 Paris Olympics — thanks to her shoes.

Obiri will be sporting a new sneaker from sportswear company On, but it’s far from a typical sneaker. On’s Cloudboom Strike LS is spray-on footwear.

“LS” stands for LightSpray, the trademarked name of the technology used to create the shoes. It works by placing a foot form on the arm of a robot as the shoe’s entire upper part is sprayed on from a single continuous filament — in just three minutes, according to Fast Company. The robot arm holds the outsole up to a sprayer as the arm rotates the shoe and the sprayer releases thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) — a material with characteristics of both plastic and rubber — spiraling the stream as a helix. It lands as a single continuous string and bonds to the outsole and itself without any glue. Next, the robot arm will pass the shoe along to another robot that sprays it with color. That cures in just three minutes, and then the shoes are immediately ready for wearing.

This technology is revolutionary because the shoe’s upper is the hardest part to produce. While the fluffy outsoles are made in a mold, the upper deals with all the intricacies of traditional garment production such as stitching, glue, fabrics, and tension wires.

“Modern shoemaking is not so modern,” Ilmarin Heitz, senior director of footwear at On, told Fast Company. “It’s just using 2D patterns … and we’re trying to wrap them around a very complex 3D shape.”

He added that the material used in LightSpray technology is so form-fitting that athletes often opt to wear it without socks. Now, the shoes are going to get their world debut at the Olympics in Paris — though Obiri was initially hesitant.

This innovative footwear could change the future of athletic shoes, making its mark on the grand stage of the Olympics.