Swiss brand On is facing a class action lawsuit in the U.S. after two customers claimed that some of its shoes make a “loud, embarrassing, and difficult to stop squeaking sound.”
As recently reported by Women’s Wear Daily (WWD), the complaint – filed in the U.S. District Court in Oregon – alleges that models featuring On’s distinctive CloudTec outsoles have a design flaw that causes the squeak. Two customers, Patricia Ramirez and Louis Bologna, claim they each bought pairs of On Cloudmonster trainers and paid a premium price for what they now believe were faulty shoes.
According to WWD, Ramirez bought her Cloudmonsters from Dick’s Sporting Goods in September 2024 and noticed the squeak “almost immediately.” After trying to wear them three times, she “gave up on them” out of embarrassment. Bologna, who purchased his pair from On’s website, reported that the squeak developed after three months and said he can no longer run or walk in the shoes.
The lawsuit references a series of TikTok videos, Reddit threads, and online reviews describing similar experiences, suggesting the issue might be more widespread than isolated incidents.
A View from the Ground
I’ve run in On shoes before and, from my own experience, I can confirm that I have heard squeakiness – but I don’t think it’s totally universal across all of On’s products.
I was once invited on a press trip to Switzerland to run with the actual founders of On as they showcased an earlier edition of their Cloudventure, their first trail running shoe. I still remember jogging alongside them through the mountains, and, yes, the shoes were squeaky. The slightly wet ground combined with the hollow outsole design made for a slightly awkward soundtrack.
That said, I’ve since tested multiple On models – including the Cloudvista, Cloudultra, and some of their hiking designs – and none of them produced that same sound. They felt stable, smooth, and quietly efficient and, in our reviews published on this very site, we rated them highly. So, from my point of view, that squeakiness could depend on the type of model in combination with the conditions and terrain.
So, do On’s trainers really squeak? From my past experiences, yes – occasionally. But I considered it to be more of a sporadic quirk rather than a systemic defect. Still, for a brand built on Swiss precision, even the faintest squeak can be hard to ignore.
