Back in 2010, with the goal of a more-accurate representation of the average foot shape, a research lab in Germany intricately scanned the feet of 2,500 athletes. The project, funded by Danish footwear giant ECCO, resulted in a crowd-sourced shape of the human foot and a new product line — ECCO BIOM.
Launched shortly after the scan project, ECCO BIOM used the information to create sets of foot-shaped anatomical molds, or “lasts,” and it built shoes around them. According to the company, the resulting BIOM line mimics the foot’s true shape by coupling a wider toe box with a snug heel.
I’ve tested BIOM shoes in the past. But this month I got four distinct pairs in house to put side by side for a collective look.
The foot-scan shoes are not all that different from other high-end footwear. And feet are so different person to person that any individual could find ill fit from the line. Or the shoes might “fit like a glove.”
Generally, the BIOM shoes fit great on my medium-width, size 12 feet. My toes splay about right in the Ultra Quest, the trail runners in the line. The boots, the sturdy BIOM Hike 1.1 model are comfortable for me after miles on a trail.
On the other end of the spectrum, I put on the company’s sandals for a short hike. Beefy and supportive, the BIOM Chiappo sandals feel more like shoes than flip-flops. A treaded outsole and “shock absorption” in the midsole further perpetuate the shoe comparison.
Add to this a healthy price tag of $130 and you have some esoteric open-format footwear that can be worn casually or taken on a hiking trail.
Finally, of all the BIOM models I like the Lite 1.1 shoes the best. ECCO calls these “high performance sports shoes,” though their look, with precisely perforated leather uppers, makes them more at home in an office or a city setting.
But looks can be misleading. Running a 5-mile loop on pavement near my office in the Lite 1.1s I find them flexible and low to the ground with no pronounced, padded heel (a plus for my running style). Their hybrid design — wear them to work, take a jog at lunch — makes them “do-all” shoes I can put on any day of the week.
In the end, the BIOM line and its foot-scan premise is no panacea to guaranteed perfect fit. As noted above, feet anatomy ranges, and it can be risky to make broad claims. But for me the German lab researchers — and the 2,500 scans they took — has resulted in a shoe line that works.
ECCO applied the anatomical edits across sandals, casual shoes, runners, and boots. The models I looked at are drastically different but hold a common denominator of being built on lasts culled from the same German scan test.
—Stephen Regenold
