Ecco
Accessories / Bags / Shoes / Underwear & Lingerie
ECCO was established in 1963 by Karl Toosbuy in the small town of Bredebro in southern Denmark. Toosbuy founded the company on the philosophy that “shoes must follow the foot” and not the other way...
ECCO was established in 1963 by Karl Toosbuy in the small town of Bredebro in southern Denmark. Toosbuy founded the company on the philosophy that “shoes must follow the foot” and not the other way around. His idea was to produce shoes that combined innovative technology, Scandinavian design, and traditional craftsmanship with an understanding of the human foot, and how it works. In 1978, the company made its first real breakthrough, and gained widespread international recognition for its comfort footwear, when it launched the "Joke" shoe, followed by the classics "Free" and "Time". These shoes were the first in the world to feature a sole imprinted with the manufacturer's logo. Over eight million pairs of shoes from this group have been sold since then. Throughout the 1980s, the company expanded its operations internationally. By 1982, sales reached 1 million pairs of shoes annually. In order to accommodate the increasing demand additional production was established in Portugal, and under licence in Japan and Cyprus. The 1990s saw major additions in the ECCO collection, including the launch of Kids, Golf and Performance shoes. ECCO built its own research and design center, named "Futura", in Denmark in 1996, since 2009 Portugal is the R&D center of ECCO and opened its own beam-house in Indonesia and tannery in Thailand a few years later. In 1998 the first flagship retail store opened on Oxford Street, in London. By 2000, ECCO owned every step of the production process, from design and leather production to branded retail sales. When Karl Toosbuy died in 2004 his daughter Hanni Toosbuy Kasprzak became owner of ECCO and Chairwoman of the Managing Board. Under her ownership ECCO continued to expand internationally, and from 2005-2008 ECCO opened a state-of-the-art leather tannery and shoe factory in Xiamen, China. In 2009 ECCO’s sports categories saw increased publicity when ECCO launched a new running shoe concept called BIOM, based on the philosophy of “Natural Motion”. ECCO’s new line of golf shoes also enjoyed a surge of popularity in 2010 when ECCO-sponsored golfer Fred Couples received worldwide media attention for his ECCO "Golf Street" golf shoes during the 2010 Masters golf tournament. In 2010, ECCO opened its first Performance retail specialty store in Shanghai, China.Brand Details
Founder
Karl Toosbuy
Brand Strategy
Market segment
Bridge
Core business
Shoes
Targets
Men, Women, Kids
Ecco Financial Report 2023
Last fiscal year ended on December 31, 2020