The Swiss company, On Holdings, manufactures running shoes.  I first heard about this company in the Wall Street Journal, in an article about their new “Sustainable” running shoe model, the CloudNeo.  This shoe is designed to be used, worn out, and then returned to the company for recycling.  For maybe the first time, a consumer product deemed “sustainable”, is offered to the public on a “subscription” model.  Below is a quote from an article on the Runner’s World Web site about the shoe.  Italics mine.

A More Sustainable Run

On is also a big innovator in sustainability. Its flagship shoe in that department is the eco-friendly Cloudneo, which is slated to launch this summer. This new shoe is completely recyclable, made partially from castor beans, and it’s available only through a subscription service called Cyclon. The idea is to create a shoe that’s manufactured, used, and then remade into a new product, with nothing going to waste. Subscribers will get a pair, run in them until they wear out, and then return them to On for recycling and get a new pair in exchange. (On estimates the shoes will last about six months or 600 kilometers before they need to be replaced.)

The Cloudneo achieves such a high level of sustainability thanks to some high-performance materials and innovative manufacturing. First is a polyamide called PA11, a recyclable material made from castor bean oil. It’s not new—PA11 was introduced in the 1950s—but On figured out a way to turn PA11 into a yarn and make the Cloudneo’s knit upper exclusively from the substance. In addition, the entire upper is produced as a single unit to eliminate waste material during manufacturing. The second material is Pebax, an exceptionally bouncy, lightweight foam that’s also fully recyclable (other brands are using Pebax as well). It forms the midsole of the Cloudneo and makes it lively, fast, and responsive. Once it’s worn out, the entire shoe can be recycled into something new.

So the company has designed a running shoe which the user will not own, but essentially rent from the manufacturer.  A runner would spend about $30.00 per month to rent his running shoes.  This model is extremely lucrative for the company, since there would be no waste, no retailer costs (since the shoes might be sold directly by the manufacturer), and since there is only one color offered, white, no costs related to different models selling better or worse.  Inventory would be easy to track, since only one model exists, saving costs.  And the buzzword, “Sustainability”, really means:

You Will Own Nothing, and You Will Be Happy.

When asked, Klaus Schwab was very pleased.  His plan for the world is coming to fruition well.