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On Bets on Cinematic Storytelling With Zone Dreamers
Zone Dreamers is a 2025 sportswear campaign by Swiss running brand On, created with production company Academy, in which actor and brand partner Zendaya stars in a fictional science-fiction film trailer to launch the Cloudzone sneaker and Studio Knit Bodysuit from the Spring/Summer 2025 Movement Lifestyle collection.
On published the campaign on April 15, 2025, simultaneously releasing the featured products through On's website, On stores, and selected retailers worldwide, according to Press On-Running. The campaign originated in Switzerland and reached a global audience, marking one of the most ambitious creative productions On has undertaken since its founding in Zurich. The choice of format — a cinematic trailer rather than a conventional advertising film — signals a deliberate repositioning of the brand beyond its technical running heritage and into broader lifestyle and fashion territory.
The Zone Dreamers trailer unfolds in a retro-futurist, surreal spatial environment, using movement as a metaphor for confidence, connection, and creative possibility. On's Chief Marketing Officer Alex Griffin described the world built for the campaign as one that "feels surreal yet deeply human — where movement becomes a metaphor for confidence, connection, and creative possibility," as documented by clapboard.com. Zendaya, reflecting on the campaign's thematic core, stated that Zone Dreamers is "about courage, friendship, and the kind of trust that gives you the freedom to step outside your comfort zone and try something new," per clapboard.com. Those twin statements — one from the brand's marketing leadership, one from its creative face — define the dual ambition of the work: to sell product while constructing a durable cultural narrative around the On name. Clapboard scores Zone Dreamers 71 out of 100, recognising its cinematic ambition and cultural casting while noting that narrative integration with the product remains an area for development.
On operates from a position of genuine competitive momentum in the global sportswear category. The brand has expanded its creative output steadily since launching its ongoing partnership with Zendaya, using each campaign to advance a coherent brand narrative rather than simply merchandise individual products. Zone Dreamers continues that trajectory, this time leaning further into fashion-adjacent storytelling as On competes for cultural relevance against category giants Nike and Adidas.
The competitive context is significant. Nike holds approximately 25 to 27 percent of global athletic footwear market share, and Adidas holds approximately 12 to 18 percent, according to gminsights.com and Fortune Business Insights respectively. On, as a challenger brand headquartered in Switzerland, cannot match that scale through distribution alone. Its strategic answer is creative differentiation — building campaigns that function as cultural objects rather than product advertisements. Zone Dreamers, with its fictional trailer format and high-profile creative collaborators, is the clearest expression of that strategy to date.
The Swiss sportswear market itself reflects broader global growth patterns. The global athletic footwear market is an expanding category, according to dataintelo.com and researchandmarkets.com, and On's Spring/Summer 2025 collection launch arrives at a moment when lifestyle-oriented sports products are drawing increasing consumer attention across the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. By positioning the Cloudzone sneaker within a surreal narrative world rather than a performance context, On is directly competing with the lifestyle lines of Nike and Adidas rather than their technical running segments — a deliberate shift in competitive targeting. The insight driving Zone Dreamers is that today's sportswear consumer responds to cultural fluency as much as functional credibility, and that a brand rooted in Switzerland can project global creative authority through the right collaborators and the right cinematic language.
Nadia Lee Cohen directed Zone Dreamers. Cohen is known for her hyper-stylised, surrealist visual language — a sensibility that aligns precisely with the retro-futurist spatial aesthetic On and Academy chose for the campaign. Her direction transforms what could have been a product film into a world-building exercise, constructing an environment in which Zendaya and her collaborators inhabit a coherent fictional reality rather than simply model clothing against a designed backdrop.
Styling for Zone Dreamers was led by Law Roach, whose longstanding creative relationship with Zendaya adds a layer of authenticity to the campaign's fashion ambitions, as reported by Little Black Book. Roach's involvement signals that Zone Dreamers was conceived as a genuine fashion and culture moment, not merely a sportswear advertisement dressed in cinematic clothing. Jewelry for the campaign was designed by Chris Habana, per lbbonline.com, adding further specificity to the world Cohen constructed. The collaboration between Cohen, Roach, and Habana gives Zone Dreamers a coherent creative triangle — direction, styling, and accessories each pulling in the same surrealist, elevated direction.
Production was handled by Academy Films, the production company that worked alongside On to bring the campaign to life, according to lbbonline.com. The single media asset at the heart of the campaign — the fictional trailer itself — demands significant craft precision. Every frame must function simultaneously as advertisement, fashion film, and narrative world-building. The retro-futurist set design, the deliberate pacing of a trailer format, and Zendaya's central performance all serve the campaign's stated theme: that movement is the source of confidence, community, and self-discovery. LBB Online, reporting in May 2025, described Zone Dreamers as On's most ambitious creative production to date, a characterisation that the production roster and format ambition clearly support.
Zone Dreamers generated measurable audience engagement following its April 15, 2025 launch. The campaign trailer and follow-up content accumulated more than 21 million Instagram views, according to prettylittlemarketer.com. Instagram outperformed TikTok in engagement for the campaign, also per prettylittlemarketer.com — a noteworthy result given that TikTok typically drives higher raw interaction volumes for fashion and sportswear content aimed at younger demographics. The Instagram-led performance suggests that Zone Dreamers connected most strongly with an audience that favours longer-form, visually dense content over short-form reactive media.
No verified sales data attributing specific revenue outcomes to Zone Dreamers is publicly available at the time of publication. Structurally, however, the campaign's effectiveness can be assessed through its architecture. The simultaneous product launch — Cloudzone sneaker and Studio Knit Bodysuit available on release day across On's digital and physical retail footprint — removes friction between cultural desire and commercial conversion. The fictional trailer format sustains attention beyond a standard advertisement, and Zendaya's dual role as cultural figure and On's ongoing brand partner lends continuity rather than a one-off celebrity moment. The campaign's roots in Switzerland, combined with its global distribution and English-language execution, position On credibly as a brand that is internationally fluent without abandoning its Zurich identity. Taken together, these structural elements represent a sophisticated and scalable creative model for the brand's ongoing expansion into lifestyle sportswear.
Zone Dreamers is a 2025 sportswear campaign by Swiss brand On, created with Academy, starring Zendaya in a fictional sci-fi film trailer. It launched on April 15, 2025, from Switzerland, introducing the Cloudzone sneaker and Studio Knit Bodysuit from the Spring/Summer 2025 Movement Lifestyle collection globally.
Nadia Lee Cohen directed Zone Dreamers for On. Cohen collaborated with stylist Law Roach and jewelry designer Chris Habana on the production, which was handled by Academy Films. The campaign was published in Switzerland in April 2025 and reached a worldwide audience through On's retail and digital channels.
Zendaya is On's ongoing brand partner, providing creative continuity across campaigns. For Zone Dreamers, she stated the work is about courage, friendship, and trust. Her longstanding relationship with stylist Law Roach also strengthened the campaign's fashion credibility, supporting On's strategic move into lifestyle sportswear beyond its technical running roots.
Zone Dreamers launched the Cloudzone sneaker and the Studio Knit Bodysuit, both part of On's Spring/Summer 2025 Movement Lifestyle collection. According to press.on-running.com, both products became available on April 15, 2025, through On's website, On stores, and selected retailers worldwide at the campaign's global debut.
Zone Dreamers generated more than 21 million Instagram views across the campaign trailer and follow-up content, according to prettylittlemarketer.com. Instagram outperformed TikTok in engagement for the campaign, suggesting the surreal cinematic format connected most strongly with audiences favouring visually dense, longer-form content over short-form social media formats.
On's Zone Dreamers received a Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100. The score recognises the campaign's cinematic ambition, the calibre of its creative collaborators — including director Nadia Lee Cohen and stylist Law Roach — and its cultural casting, while noting room for deeper narrative integration between the storytelling and the featured products.
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