Laurence Stoffel on Building Sportswear Brand ‘On’ and Walking Away at the Top

Laurence Stoffel grew up in the Swiss mountains. A shy, dreamy child who liked to observe the actions of adults, she went on to study industrial design at ECAL, one of Switzerland's most competitive art schools, talking her way back in after being rejected on her first attempt. Her early career took her from a Munich furniture studio to Freitag, the Swiss bag brand and eventually to a design research grant that sent her and her partner to Ghana and Burkina Faso, where six weeks spent weaving baskets with local designers under a mango tree unravelled everything she thought she knew about "correct" design.

Laurence then joined On, the Swiss running brand, when it was a handful of people selling shoes out of Zurich, and spent the next decade building its Creative Studio from scratch, scaling the team from 1 to over 100 people and helping steer the company to an IPO now valued at $11.8 billion. Along the way she became a mother of two, weathered a burnout serious enough to stop her mid-marathon, and rebuilt her relationship to work around one rule: choose it, don't owe it. Now, having recently left On and turned down several seven-figure job offers, Laurence is deciding what comes next. 

In this episode we cover:

• Growing up in the Swiss mountains and the ideas of success inherited from her parents

• Studying industrial design and talking her way back in after rejection

• Early career: a Munich furniture studio and Freitag

• A design research grant that took her to Ghana and Burkina Faso 

• The unconventional path into On, and why she doesn't believe in job applications

• Scaling On's Creative Studio from 1 to 100+ people

• Becoming a mother of two, choosing not to marry, and letting go of milestones

• What burnout actually looked like for her

• Why she is turning down seven-figure job offers right now 

• Ultra-running as a mindset

Mentions:

On

ECAL

Stefan Diez - Munich furniture/industrial designer Sibylle Stoeckli - Lausanne-based female industrial designer

Freitag (Swiss bag brand) and its co-founder Daniel Freitag Pierrot le Fou (1965), dir. Jean-Luc Godard

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurence-stoffel/

This season of The Slow Down is sponsored by female-founded, Greek swim and resortwear brand Kiohne. The Slow Down listeners can use code theslowdown for 20% off their first shop on kiohne.com. Enter their world, explore their collection and buy beautiful pieces designed to be enjoyed while slowing down this summer.