'The Freddie Sneaker': Now in a lizard print

Ecco continues to chase the success that Fred Couples helped deliver by his wearing Ecco's hybrid shoe, the Street Premier, at the 2010 Masters. At the recent PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., the company introduced the Street Premier in a lizard print.

"What we've done is taken the Street Premier, which everybody calls the Freddie Sneaker, obviously, and we've just extended it with print leather," David Helter of Ecco said. "This is not lizard, it's just printed to look like lizard.

"We're finding a lot of these [Street Premier's] aren't being worn on the golf course. People like them as casual shoes. So we wanted something a little bit dressier."

The lizard print do not have a colorful bottom as other Street Premier shoes do. "It looks pretty tame," Helter said.

Since the 2010 Masters, Ecco's golf shoe business has continued to grow. "We almost doubled our business in 2011," Helter said, "and we've already exceeded our first six-month plan in 2012. This is going on two years, this whole hybrid thing. We were alone doing it. Now everybody is doing it."

-- John Strege