The timeline tells the real story. On locked down the youngest World No. 1 in padel history — a 21-year-old Spaniard who’s won 37 major titles and rattled off a 47-match winning streak with partner Agustín Tapia — but consumers won’t see a single Coello-designed shoe for another two and a half years. WWD reports that the first padel-specific models won’t hit shelves until summer 2027, an eternity in a sport that’s adding 10 million players annually.
That’s not sloppiness. It’s a declaration of intent from a brand that just posted a 24.9% sales gain and nearly tripled quarterly profits to 142 million Swiss francs. On isn’t chasing headlines with a quick colorway drop — it’s embedding Coello in its Swiss engineering labs to build a technical foundation that can scale with the sport’s explosive growth. “I’m incredibly proud to partner with On as their first padel player athlete,” Coello said in a statement. “By combining my experience with On’s technology, we can create products that elevate the sport and help athletes at every level perform at their best.”
The Product Development Gambit
Most endorsement deals hand an athlete a pre-existing shoe model, slap their name on the tongue, and call it collaboration. On is doing something messier and more expensive: flying Coello to Switzerland for months of iterative testing with product engineers. Feliciano Robayna, On’s head of athlete management for tennis, framed it as “far more than a simple endorsement” — the company plans to extract “in-depth technical feedback” on lateral stability, cushioning compression rates under explosive movement, and traction patterns specific to painted concrete courts.
That kind of development cycle justifies the 2027 launch window, but it also exposes On to risk. Coello could lose his ranking. A younger prodigy could emerge. The padel boom could plateau before the shoes even ship. But On’s recent earnings trajectory suggests the brand has cash reserves to burn on strategic positioning — and padel represents one of the few racket sports where a performance-first brand can still claim virgin territory before Nike or Adidas plants a flag.
Why Coello Matters Beyond Rankings
Coello’s résumé reads like a algorithm-generated “perfect padel ambassador” profile: hometown roots in Mojados, Spain (the sport’s emotional heartland), a youth trajectory that split between football and tennis before committing fully at 16, and a playing style built on height, power, and court coverage that translates visually to highlight reels. His partnership with Tapia broke the previous record for consecutive wins and made him the youngest player ever to reach World No. 1 — the kind of narrative milestone that carries weight in marketing campaigns across Southern Europe and Latin America.
But the real value for On lies in timing. Coello signed before padel’s North American explosion fully materializes, meaning On can position itself as the endemic choice when millions of U.S. recreational players start Googling “best padel shoes” in 2027-2028. If the product delivers on lateral stability and durability — the two specs recreational players actually notice after 10 hours of court time — On could capture market share before established tennis brands repurpose their court shoe lines.
The 2027 launch window stops being a liability and starts looking like strategic patience. On gets two years to iterate, test with club-level players, and refine manufacturing at scale. Coello gets shoes engineered specifically for his movement patterns rather than adapted from a trail runner. And padel gets a signal that serious brands view it as a permanent category rather than a 2025 trend piece.
Whether On’s bet pays off depends entirely on execution — but signing the sport’s most dominant athlete to a multi-year development deal suggests the Swiss company believes padel infrastructure is worth building slowly and building right.
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