On and END. Go Remote
We’re as on board as any with the hiking craze. Anything that gets our content-weary souls to detach themselves from our hardware, to refocus our eyes for a minute on a horizon rather than a screen, has surely to be a good thing. But there’s still room to ask how far that curiosity really stretches, and whether the path sometimes has more to offer beyond the well-trodden route.
How many Highsnobiety readers know what a shakehole is? Or a doline? How far out of your metropolitan area—or your comfort zone—does your trendy hiking group really take you?
Against this barely-rural trend, On and END. decided to take things remote—really remote. In collaboration with land artist duo Strl_, a group of artists and nature enthusiasts embarked on Weighless Traces, a performative walking project set against the rugged and beautiful backdrop of the Yorkshire Dales.
Shot with a nostalgic grain, the troupe of hikers carry a set of balloon-like white spheres deep into the Dales, installing them as a temporary art piece in one of the landscape’s shakeholes (which, if you watch the video, you’ll learn is a crater-like depression in the limestone soil), their quiet intervention sitting somewhere between ritual and gentle provocation.
“It’s been really cool to learn how nature and art can coexist and also change each other,” says one of the project’s participants. The shakeholes, another remarks, are sculptures in themselves, and the hikers’ introduction of temporary, non-invasive sculptures worked as a testament to the cohabitation of human intention and natural form—an exchange that leaves the landscape untouched, but subtly re-seen.
At the center of the story is the collaborative new shoe, born out of On’s technical precision and END.’s design-forward thinking. The On Cloudhorizon END. takes something unmistakably urban and recalibrates it for terrain that refuses predictability. Its mixed-material upper of synthetic suede and recycled textiles is a considered mix, rendered in an Ivory and Leaf palette that converses with the natural world around it. This is a shoe that translates design language into something that belongs outdoors without lapsing into performance cosplay.
Combine this with On’s renowned technology underfoot, and the result is a sneaker designed not just to traverse landscapes like the Yorkshire Dales, but to do so with ease. Like Weightless Traces itself, the Cloudhorizon is about moving through nature thoughtfully, proving that considered design and genuine outdoor utility don’t have to exist at odds.
Feel inspired? The On Cloudhorizon END. is available to shop on END.'s site here.
