Sole patrol

The Scandinavians are coming.

While the Swedes have yet to reach these shores with their clothes, cars, and furniture, the Danes are already here, and they’re eyeing your feet.

That’s right. Ecco, the number-one shoe brand in Denmark, has finally set foot in the Philippines. "Our brand recognition is higher than Coca-Cola in Denmark," says Michael Hauge Sørensen, managing director of Ecco Asia Pacific Ltd., and he’s not kidding. Like other Nordic superbrands, Ecco exudes that unmistakable Scandinavian cool – a winning combination of quality, comfort, affordability, and great design.

Ecco’s tagline is "We will move you," and they mean it in all senses of the word. The first store in Shangri-La Plaza Mall is cozy, and very conducive to buying what could be your best pair of shoes ever.

If you’re like me, you buy your work shoes from one place, your walking shoes from another, and your sports shoes from still another. Ecco is literally a one-stop shop for all your footwear needs. The store is equitably divided, devoted to men’s footwear on the right, women’s on the left, with business shoes up front, casual footwear in the middle, bags and performance products at the back, including golf shoes. With more than 500 stores worldwide selling 12 million pairs a year, Ecco is aware of how stores are major marketing tools for the brand and designed their shops accordingly.

"We wanted to purvey some of the values and heritage of Ecco being a Danish company, so you will see a lot of focus on light," says Sørensen. "Light flooring, bright light, the choice of materials is focused on aesthetics and straight lines, which is very much inherent in Scandinavian design and furniture."

Anton Huang, the man with the Midas touch who seems to know what consumers need even before they know it, thought Ecco would fit Filipinos like the proverbial glass slipper. "We were looking for this type of footwear offering for our market, and Ecco’s one of the top brands in terms of sales worldwide," says the Stores Specialists Inc. executive vice president. "The heritage of Ecco is casual footwear, and our market being a predominantly casual market, it’s definitely something that I’m very confident will be successful in the Philippines. Its pricing is at par with markets near us like Hong Kong, and the price positioning as a whole is very reasonable for the kind of quality and workmanship that you get from an Ecco shoe."

Both the Imeldific and the more low-maintenance alike will find a style that will move them. For conservative office types there’s a wide range of business shoes in black and brown leather, in designs that manage to look classic and current at the same time. Sober but with discreet style flourishes, these shoes have touched such a nerve with men that they’re currently top sellers.

For fashionistas, there’s a vivid color and daring design element to suit every seasonal whim. Two standouts are the Casual Super Cross, with a ribbed sole that extends up onto the leather upper; and the Spark sandal, a Mojo-type creation in fun shades like yellow and red. I’m always on the lookout for the perfect travel shoe, and Ecco’s floral Mary Jane would fit the bill nicely, with its eye-catching print and oh-so-comfy soles.

Which brings us to the secret of Ecco’s longevity and global appeal. While a trendy look may last but a season, comfort is forever. And Ecco offers possibly the most comfortable shoes on the planet. Forget your Foot Petals and gel soles – Ecco has Gore-Tex, Rubbertech and PU (polyurethane). Gore-Tex is the shoe’s waterproof membrane, keeping your feet dry while letting them "breathe." Rubbertech, a special rubber used for the outsole, provides excellent traction, grip and shock absorption. PU is a flexible foam filled with micro-air bubbles to put a spring in your step. Used for the midsole or outsole, it acts as another shock absorber while providing stable grip and excellent balance.

"A lot of technical innovation goes into their shoes," notes Huang, "and their quality control is very intense. Another thing that sets Ecco apart from a lot of different partners we work with is that they’re very intense in terms of their training. Before we opened the store, we were very pleasantly surprised: they had their training staff come over and they did a three-day training program with our sales staff. To the point that today, our sales staff that live and breathe Ecco know how their shoes are manufactured. They have an internal saying: ‘From the cow to the shoe.’" Because they’re fully vertically integrated, they make their own leathers and the whole process is entirely their own."

Karl Toosbuy, who founded Ecco in 1963 in Bredebro, Denmark, was a shoemaker by trade. "He actually left his previous employer because he thought he could make footwear a lot better, and he was right," smiles Sørensen. "He sold his house, his car, and then he and his wife left for a small, deserted part of Denmark and that’s really where they started building the empire."

Toosbuy realized at an early stage that since footwear manufacturing is traditionally labor intensive, they needed to combine handmade craftsmanship with some of the more labor-intensive processes, and automate them. Hence the introduction of the Desma, a high-tech production machine for the direct injection of soles, and, since 1982, the use of robots in production plants, which also ensured consistent quality.

"We had a big breakthrough in 1978 when we had three products that really hit the trend at that time: the unisex Joke, Free, and Time shoes," recalls Sørensen. "That really took Ecco to the next level. Some people called them ‘duck feet’ because they had a very wide last, so they were very comfortable for the foot."

An avid golfer, Toosbuy also couldn’t find the perfect golf shoe, so he made his own. "He thought, ‘The comfort of Ecco shoes – why can’t you have that feeling in a pair of golf shoes?’ And that basically started the whole process," continues Sørensen. "Today we are among the five biggest golf-shoe brands in the world."

So confident is Ecco in its right to shoes that it won’t jump on the current trend of having a famous fashion designer cross over into designing shoes, nor does it take celebrity endorsements lightly. "Paying somebody to wear a product is not really what we are about," Sørensen says.

They do plan to keep on top of fashion trends, though, which is good news for style-conscious Pinoys. "You can combine all kinds of material, casual with very formal, so it becomes increasingly important for us to follow trends and to have products that cater to these different fashions," observes Sørensen. "The way people dress now, it’s more lifestyle-oriented, and anything goes, frankly. There’s no right and wrong today."

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Ecco is located at the second level of Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong, SM Mall of Asia, and soon to open at Rustan’s Makati.