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On Turns Its Tri-Kings Into Viking Warriors for 2023
On's Tri-Kings is a 2023 animated short film produced by London-based Passion Pictures that transforms real-world triathlon champions Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt into manga-inspired Viking warriors navigating a Norse mythological realm, blending 2D animation with 3D motion-capture technology to reframe elite athletic identity as heroic legend.
The campaign launched in Switzerland in September 2023, published by Passion Pictures on September 8 of that year. It positions On — the Swiss sportswear brand headquartered in Zurich — at the intersection of high-performance athletics and pop-culture storytelling, a creative territory rarely explored within the sports and fitness category. Gustav Iden, the 2022 Ironman World Champion, and Kristian Blummenfelt, an Olympic Champion, are recast as "Gustav the Great" and "Kristian the Unstoppable," fearsome Norsemen battling sea serpents, sirens, mysterious charioteers and a living forest as Norse gods watch from above.
Gessica Giulini, Sports Marketing Lead at On, describes the intent directly. "With Tri-Kings, we continue our tradition of distinction with a world-class animation and live-action storytelling cross-over," Giulini states, adding that the campaign draws on "the epic drama of Norse mythology to create something that breaks free from the conventions of sports content". In Switzerland and across global markets, sports brands have historically anchored athlete campaigns to training methodology and performance data. Tri-Kings rejects that template entirely, using narrative animation to reach audiences who may never have encountered triathlon before. The Clapboard Ad Archive rates the campaign 76 out of 100, reflecting strong creative ambition and distinctive execution within the sportswear category.
On identified a saturation problem. Creative Director Simon Brotherson noted that the volume of existing content featuring Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt was dominated by scientific material — analysis of their so-called Norwegian Method of training, physiological data, and race breakdowns, as documented at Press On-Running. The strategic decision was deliberate: shift the storytelling register entirely rather than compete within a crowded field of performance content.
The competitive context makes this choice legible. Nike held an estimated 15.2% global sportswear market share in 2023, according to GlobalData, while Adidas held an estimated 8.2%, also according to GlobalData. Both competitors maintain vast athlete-content ecosystems anchored to aspiration and achievement metrics. On, by contrast, reported CHF 1.792 billion in net sales for 2023, up 46.6% on a reported basis and 55% at constant currency, according to Investors On-Running — growth substantially faster than the broader category. That commercial momentum gave On the standing to experiment creatively rather than imitate established playbooks.
In Switzerland, the brand's home market, the sportswear audience is sophisticated and internationally oriented. The Tri-Kings campaign speaks to that audience by framing Iden and Blummenfelt — both already widely recognised as having Viking-like physical presence, as noted in On's own campaign commentary — through the lens of Norse mythology, a cultural reference system with deep roots in Scandinavian identity that resonates across European markets. Giulini's framing of the campaign as capturing "an authentic and fun perspective" signals a deliberate move to broaden triathlon's appeal beyond its existing specialist fanbase, positioning On's sportswear platform as culturally expansive rather than category-bound.
Passion Pictures produced the Tri-Kings film from its London base, bringing together a creative team that bridged live-action direction and animation artistry. Simon Brotherson served as Creative Director, co-writer, and live-action director, while Shanghai-born Yibi Hu of Future Power Station directed the animation, as documented at passion-animation.com. The pairing of a live-action creative director with a specialist animation director is central to the film's hybrid character.
The animation draws explicit stylistic inspiration from 1990s Batman and Robin cartoons, according to the project's own creative documentation. That reference point anchors the visual language in a specific era of Western animation — bold outlines, dynamic action compositions, expressive character design — while the manga-influenced aesthetic introduces a parallel visual tradition from Japanese comics, creating a hybrid register that feels genuinely novel within sports advertising. The technical production combined 2D animation with 3D motion-capture technology, allowing the film to render the athletes' distinctive physicality within the stylised world rather than producing generic heroic archetypes.
The narrative construction is dense with mythological detail. Sea serpents and sirens attempt to lure Gustav and Kristian from their course. Mysterious charioteers give chase. A living forest obstructs the route. A final sequence places the Tri-Kings running through clouds toward an unseen finish line, the Norse gods watching in judgment. This density of obstacle and spectacle mirrors the actual structure of triathlon — swimming, cycling, running, each discipline translated into a corresponding mythological trial. The film functions simultaneously as entertainment, athlete biography rendered in legend, and a brand statement about what On believes elite sport should look and feel like. Production credits beyond Brotherson and Hu are not publicly documented in available sources.
Tri-Kings recorded 668,423 YouTube views, 298 likes, and 19 comments, according to Clapboard Ad Archive data. Those figures reflect a film that reached a substantial audience for a brand-funded sports animation, though the relatively contained engagement ratio — measured in likes and comments against total views — suggests the film functioned more as a broadcast-style statement than a social conversation driver. That distinction is not a weakness: the campaign's stated ambition was to reach audiences unfamiliar with triathlon, and view volume on a non-algorithm-prioritised piece of branded content indicates genuine distribution reach.
The Clapboard Ad Archive rates Tri-Kings 76 out of 100. That score reflects the campaign's clear creative ambition, its technical accomplishment in blending 2D and 3D animation disciplines, and the strategic coherence of its departure from conventional sports content. It also reflects the limits of engagement depth visible in the public metrics — the film commands attention without generating the participatory response that would indicate deep cultural penetration.
Structurally, Tri-Kings demonstrates what becomes possible when a sportswear brand with strong commercial momentum — On's 2023 net sales growth of 46.6%, per investors.on-running.com — chooses to invest that confidence in creative risk rather than category convention. In Switzerland and across international markets, the campaign establishes On as a brand willing to treat its athletes as cultural figures rather than performance data points, a positioning that compounds over time as the brand's roster and storytelling platform continue to develop.
Tri-Kings is a 2023 animated short film by Swiss sportswear brand On, produced by Passion Pictures, that reimagines triathlon champions Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt as Viking warriors. The film blends 2D animation and 3D motion-capture technology within a Norse mythological setting, combining manga aesthetics with 1990s superhero-cartoon visual references.
Yibi Hu of Future Power Station directed the animation for Tri-Kings. Creative Director Simon Brotherson led the project overall, also serving as co-writer and live-action director. Passion Pictures, based in London, produced the film, which was published on September 8, 2023, according to passion-animation.com.
On's Creative Director Simon Brotherson identified an oversaturation of scientific training content featuring Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt. The Viking concept drew on the athletes' existing public association with Norse physicality and fierce competition, reframing their identity through mythology to reach audiences beyond triathlon's existing specialist fanbase, according to press.on-running.com.
Tri-Kings recorded 668,423 YouTube views, 298 likes, and 19 comments, according to Clapboard Ad Archive data. The Clapboard Ad Archive rates the campaign 76 out of 100, reflecting strong creative ambition and technical execution in blending manga-inspired animation with live-action sportswear storytelling across the 2023 Switzerland campaign.
Tri-Kings continues an athlete-led storytelling platform that On has developed across multiple campaigns, including Run for Each Other in July 2022, created by AKKURAT Studios, according to adsoftheworld.com. On reported CHF 1.792 billion in 2023 net sales, per investors.on-running.com, giving the brand commercial standing to pursue distinctly unconventional creative formats within the sportswear category.
The Tri-Kings film combined 2D animation with 3D motion-capture technology, according to Clapboard Ad Archive documentation. The visual style drew on 1990s Batman and Robin cartoons and manga aesthetics, as noted in the campaign's own creative records. Director Yibi Hu and Creative Director Simon Brotherson developed this hybrid format for Passion Pictures in 2023.
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