While Switzerland is well known for its inventions and traditions, the country is yet to really break through when it comes to the fashion industry (beyond watches, of course). However, Swiss company On may be about to change that, after the sportswear firm was named one of the fastest-growing brands in the industry by Lyst.

Fashion’s hottest brands and products by Lyst

To create the index, the fashion, tech and shopping firm Lyst took a look at the biggest and fastest-growing fashion brands in every quarter of the year. This was done by analysing the shopping habits of the 200 million people who use their shopping service every year.

To determine which brands are “in” or “out” of fashion, the company determined how often a brand is mentioned on its platform, product views, sales and how often the brands have been mentioned on all the major social media platforms on the internet.

Traditional fashion houses dominate the market

At the end of 2023, it was the Italian fashion giant Prada that was rated as the hottest brand in the world. Not only is the over 100-year-old company going from strength to strength in terms of sales, but Lyst also noted that it captured the public imagination through several high-profile events and news stories - for instance, Prada announced in October 2023 that it was collaborating with Axiom Space to design the spacesuits NASA astronauts will wear when they return to the moon.

Italian brands Miu Miu, Spanish style icon Loewe, hip label Bottega Veneta and sustainable tour-de-force Moncler rounded out the top five. Lyst noted that many of the most influential brands in the world use a mixture of events, celebrity endorsements and collaborations to cement their status in the higher echelons. “A brand must deliver on attention and emotion,” the firm wrote.

On shoes from Switzerland the world's breakout brand

However, while it isn’t one of the most influential just yet, Swiss sportswear On was rated as one of the most up-and-coming brands at the end of 2023. The sportswear company, founded in Zurich and famous for its “cloud-like, running on air” shoe comfort technology, joined the likes of Victoria Beckham and Ralph Lauren in being named a “breakout brand.”

This accolade was mainly earned thanks to On’s rapid expansion, having reported a 46,5-percent increase in sales in the third quarter of 2023. It also grew in influence after collaborating with Loewe on a special sneaker, named by Lyst as one of its “trending products”. Searches for On shoes also shot up by 592 percent in the last three months of the year.

10 hottest brands in the world

In all, here are the 10 hottest brands in the world at the end of 2023, according to Lyst:

1. Prada
2. Miu Miu
3. Loewe
4. Bottega Veneta
5. Moncler
6. Saint Laurent
7. Versace
8. Jacquemus 
9. Burberry
10. Valentino

To see which other fashion brands made the cut, check out the Lyst report.

Thumb image credit: kovop / Shutterstock.com