R&D consists of a diverse team of shoe professionals and specialists, all focusing on contributing, within individual fields of expertise, to the creation of new generations of ECCO shoes. On one hand the R&D closely collaborates with the designers, focused on realising the new conceptual product idea, from first technical dialogue until final prototypes are presented. On the other hand R&D works closely with our ECCO production units in order to ensure an effective and smooth transfer of the product concepts, prior to full production. Within R&D we combine disciplines such as material science and chemistry, biomechanics and cost engineering with traditional shoemaking, 2D and 3D engineering, rapid prototyping, last & mould development and upper making and injection techniques. The dynamic process of creating new products, all with different specifications depending on look, feel and function, requires a multi-skilled team with a high degree of flexibility in terms of how each new concept development is composed.

We believe in seeking out new technical solutions and in innovating, possibly adding new dimensions of competences and know-how to our technical team, all aimed at allowing us to further develop the quality and comfort, the look, feel and function of the new generations of ECCO shoes.

Within R&D we keep ourselves well-informed on a wide variety of technical disciplines and subjects, all relevant when it comes to the combination of our technical advanced shoemaking process and our heritage of shoemaking. We use new learnings and technical possibilities as stepping stones when further developing our way of shoemaking.

The main purpose of R&D is to make the ideas of the designers come alive, with as few limitations as possible.

We operate at two main development sites, one at the ECCO HQ in Bredebro, Denmark, the other in S. João de Vêr, in Portugal, sharing the location with our Portuguese ECCO production unit.