Made in three minutes, feels like a sock: Are spray-on sneakers the future?

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. ZURICH—Sneaker brand On first grabbed attention with a sole full of holes. Now it is betting on a shoe that is made with a spray and feels more like a sock.

The unconventional shoe is the result of a new technology that sprays the upper part of the sneaker onto a foot-shaped mold twirled around by a robotic arm. The LightSpray system not only produces an unusual shoe but eliminates the need to source and stitch together individual pieces of fabric. A sneaker materializes in about three minutes using the technology, a step toward automating an industry that still relies heavily on human labor.

“In a traditional product you have 200 pairs of hands, in this one you basically have only a few," said Marc Maurer, On’s co-chief executive. The first commercial sneaker produced using the spray is the CloudStrike Boom LS—a lightweight, laceless shoe costing $300 a pair and targeted at serious runners. That price is roughly the same as Nike’s latest super shoe and cheaper than a rival offering from Adidas.

On now plans to scale up the LightSpray technology to launch cheaper versions of the running shoe as well as casual sneakers in the next few years. Expanding LightSpray brings challenges. The technology is an exciting development, “but it won’t be a game changer unless they can make it affordable" by using it to make mass-market sneakers, said Matt Powell, a footwear consultant with Spurwink River, citing the initial product’s price tag.