On's Carbon-Captured Sneaker Scales to 1 Million Pairs

Captured carbon dioxide just found a customer outside the energy sector. On's Cloud X 5 running shoe now uses a midsole built from Infinium's eNaphtha, made from waste CO2 and renewable hydrogen. On has scaled the shoe past 1 million pairs, hitting that target four years ahead of schedule.

For years, CO2 utilization lived mostly in pilot plants and lab demos. This launch moves it into a product people actually buy and wear.

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What Is the Cloud X 5, and Why Does the Midsole Matter?

The Cloud X 5 is one of On's most popular running shoe styles, now built with a CleanCloud midsole. On, the Swiss performance sportswear brand founded in 2010, uses CleanCloud EVA foam in place of conventional fossil-based foam.

Most athletic midsoles come from EVA or polyurethane foam. Both are made from naphtha, a petroleum product refined from crude oil.

CleanCloud swaps that fossil naphtha for a carbon-based alternative. The chemistry stays the same. The feedstock does not.

• The resulting EVA foam is chemically identical to conventional material
• Runners get the same molecular structure and performance
• The carbon source is the only difference between old and new

CleanCloud carries more than 80 percent lower modeled carbon impact than conventional fossil-based EVA foam by On in 2026, based on a life cycle assessment using the credit approach, according to On Running's press release.

How Does Captured Carbon Become a Shoe?

The process runs through three companies, each handling one link in the chain. Waste CO2 goes in, EVA foam comes out.

Infinium, a Sacramento, California-based eFuels producer, converts waste CO2 and renewable hydrogen into eNaphtha at its green hydrogen-linked Project Pathfinder facility in Corpus Christi, Texas. That facility has shipped commercial volumes since 2024.

Infinium's eNaphtha is chemically equivalent to fossil naphtha. It runs through existing steam crackers without any equipment changes, which keeps costs down and speeds adoption.

From there, Borouge International takes over. The polyolefins producer, formed in 2026 through the combination of Borouge Plc, Borealis, and NOVA Chemicals, converts the eNaphtha into e-ethylene at its Porvoo, Finland facility. That e-ethylene becomes the EVA used in the shoe.

Every step in the chain carries ISCC PLUS certification. That means verified chain-of-custody tracking from Infinium's plant through Borouge International's operations to On's manufacturing partners.

Is CO2 Utilization Finally Scaling Into Consumer Goods?

The Cloud X 5 answers that question with a yes. A supply chain built for petrochemicals now runs on captured carbon at commercial volume, not pilot scale.

Most carbon capture, utilization, and storage projects earn revenue through geological storage credits and tax incentives like 45Q. Consumer product buyers, on the other hand, purchase captured carbon simply because it performs the same as the fossil version and cuts emissions.

The global CO2 utilization market is projected to reach 70 billion dollars by 2030, rising to 550 billion dollars by 2040 by Lux Research's 2025 estimate. The broader carbon capture and storage market is projected to grow from 5.82 billion dollars in 2025 to 17.75 billion dollars by 2030 by MarketsandMarkets.

That growth needs buyers who are not oil and gas companies. A sportswear brand with a global retail footprint is exactly that kind of buyer.

Year	Milestone	Scale
2022	On unveils CleanCloud concept	5 prototype pairs
2024	Infinium ships commercial eNaphtha to Borouge International	Commercial volumes begin
2026	Cloud X 5 launches at commercial scale	1,000,000+ pairs, 4 years early

What This Means for CCUS Economics Beyond Storage Credits

Storage credits and tax incentives built the first wave of CCUS projects. A durable buyer market in consumer goods could build the second wave.

Plastics, textiles, and packaging all run on the same petrochemical feedstocks used to make shoe midsoles. If eNaphtha can replace fossil naphtha in one product line without new factories, it can likely replace it in others.

On has already said it wants to extend CleanCloud to other footwear styles across its lineup. That signals repeat demand, not a one-time marketing moment.

Infinium is not stopping at eNaphtha. Its second commercial facility, Project Roadrunner in West Texas, is under construction and will also produce synthetic aviation fuel alongside chemical feedstocks.

That pairs a growing sustainable aviation fuel supply chain with a consumer goods supply chain, both drawing from the same captured carbon and carbon capture foundation. It is one more sign that carbon utilization pathways are becoming standard infrastructure rather than side projects.

RELATED: CCUS Revolution: How 120x Growth Could Transform Net Zero

A shoe midsole is a small object to carry a big signal. When captured carbon can pass as ordinary plastic to a runner lacing up for a morning jog, the argument for CO2 utilization stops being theoretical.

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