On is a Swiss sportswear company founded in 2010. Its shoes, apparel and athlete programmes have made it one of the fastest-growing brands in running. On Racing Academy was created for the US market as an eight-week training journey combining running, walking, hiking and yoga.
Launching On Racing Academy with Strava in one month
On wanted to turn an eight-week training programme into a brand experience built around the habits runners already had. With roughly one month before launch, Tailor Hub, mendesaltaren and TRIP designed and built an experience that connected Strava activity, weekly content and ecommerce rewards. The challenge brought together 191,507 participants in the run-up to the 2025 New York City Marathon.
Client
Challenge
On wanted a brand activation that lived inside the runner’s actual routine. The idea was to connect training, weekly content and commercial rewards in one eight-week experience leading into the New York City Marathon.
The concept was approved in late July 2025. The challenge had to open on September 1. In roughly a month, TRIP, mendesaltaren and Tailor Hub had to define the experience, design it, build the Strava integration and connect each runner’s progress to content, prizes and rewards in On’s ecommerce.
Building a separate tracking product would have added friction for the people the campaign was trying to reach. Runners already used Strava, so the Academy had to meet them there.
What we built
The public experience was straightforward: join the challenge, record 21 activities and unlock a new part of the Academy each week. The engineering sat behind that simplicity.
We integrated the experience with Strava and worked directly with its team to raise API rate limits for a challenge operating at mass participation.
Activity events triggered progression automatically, without manual checks or repeated polling.
The Training Hub released new episodes each week, including audio-guided runs, mindful training and preparation advice.
Progress connected activity to commercial rewards. At 40% completion, participants unlocked a 20% discount on On products and a chance to win a race-day kit. Later milestones opened access to further prizes, including Penn Relays tickets and two places at On’s high-performance camp in St. Moritz.
mendesaltaren led the visual design; Tailor Hub built the production experience and the systems joining Strava activity, content and rewards.
The race to launch
The campaign called for a dedicated team that could move faster than On’s internal roadmap would normally allow. Bringing in Tailor Hub gave the project immediate access to the engineering and integration experience needed for the September launch, while On’s technology team remained focused on its core priorities.
On needed a group that could move from an approved concept to a live international product in weeks. TRIP, mendesaltaren and Tailor Hub worked in parallel rather than treating strategy, design and engineering as three consecutive handoffs.
The campaign launched on September 1 and closed on October 26, one week before the New York City Marathon. For the runners, it was an eight-week journey. For the teams building it, the real race lasted about a month.