Ecco introduces new hybrid golf shoe

LAS VEGAS -- Ecco hopes to continue the momentum it built and continues to enjoy with its Street hybrid golf shoe by taking the anatomical upper from its BIOM brand and wedding it to a hybrid body. The company officially launched the BIOM hybrid at the PGA Expo here.

"Freddy helped us again this weekend, wearing the shoes with no socks," David Helter, sales director for Ecco, said, referring to Fred Couples' victory in the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. Couples again was wearing the Ecco Street, as he did at the Masters in 2010, launching the hybrid category of golf shoe that other companies now are emulating.

"Everybody is coming after the hybrid business now," Helter said. "We were alone in this business for 2010 and much of 2011. The whole industry sat by and thought we were nuts and that this was going to be a flash in the pan. We think 50 percent of golfers going forward will start wearing hybrid product."

The BIOM Hybrid, Ecco believes, represents the logical evolution of both the hybrid category and the natural motion trend of designing athletic footwear that allow the feet to move naturally within the shoe.

"We all talk about stability, support and traction," Helter said. "Now it's all about less is more. The BIOM has forefoot flexibility, but we also want torsion on the sole. So there's BIOM, here's Street. We've taken a BIOM upper and we put it on a hybrid body. We'll start delivering it later this year, while the rest of the market is chasing hybrid."

The Ecco BIOM Hybrid will have a retail price of $190.

-- John Strege