ECCO Men's Biom Fjuel Train Walking Shoe Review

I have owned many pairs of Ecco shoes, and I have followed the Biom line in particular. Ecco has some truly great designer/engineers, and the ones who created the Biom line belong in shoe history. The original Biom B running shoe is one of the best shoes I have owned. I still have my well worn originals, and I found a new old stock pair on ebay that I snatched up immediately. I run in the newer ones, and I knock around in the luxurious and fantastically comfortable old ones. Unfortunately, the marketers seem to rule over the designer/engineers, and the best Ecco shoes are often difficult to identify. It is impossible to track the hundreds of models of Ecco shoes and their variations, especially given the poor and inconsistent descriptions provided by the marketers.And then unfortunately there are sometimes production flaws—like the ones that caused cracked soles. I have a nice Seattle GTX plain toe pair that was a perfect bad weather semi-dress shoe, but the soles cracked the first year. I couldn’t tell how the water was getting in the shoe—it was a $200 Gore-tex model! Eventually I found the cracks—in both soles! Unforgivable—except that Ecco is now a big, mass market producer with factories spread around the planet and quality is impossible to control. You have to study carefully to know what you are getting—and return inferior shoes. I’m stuck with the cracked soles, but I’m all the more vigilant when I buy now—especially when I pay $200.This new Biom Fjuel model attracted my attention because it resembled those Biom B running shoes that I love. The trouble with those is that they’re white, with red soles, and they’re obviously running shoes. There’s no sneaking them into a dress-casual setting, or even a casual setting--at least, not at my age. But the Fjuel—just maybe it will be more versatile. So I bought them.First, the Biom Fjuel in this Black leather/leather lined edition is flat out stunning—even better in real life than in the pictures. It’s obviously a sport shoe, but you could sneak it under some black slacks and just about get away with it in a more casual setting. The styling is A+. Someone even persuaded the marketers not to emboss and paint ECCO all over the shoe—something they do even to their upper level dress shoes (which makes them pretty much worthless/tasteless for more formal occasions). Instead, these Fjuels say “biom” in small letters low on the side, and then also on the shoestrings. You can find “ecco” only on the pull loop. Everything else is subdued except for the white strips on the lace loops, which glow reflectively and look great.The yak leather is substantial and soft and perforated in a tasteful way. The shoes are relatively light. They are also intelligently and precisely supportive and cushioned in the way that the true Bioms are. They are very comfortable, and it’s a pleasure and relief to put them on. I rate them a 94/100 and so a 5 on Amazon’s scale.A comparison with the original Biom B shoes (99/100) has the Fjuel’s falling a little short in some areas. The B leather is superior—thinner, softer, more flexible, wrapping around the foot like a glove or chamois —yet strong and completely supportive and still in prime condition after years of wear. The Fjuel’s leather is great--A quality—but not as great, not A+. It also shows a tiny bit more of the usual yak imperfections, but the Black covers that up pretty well. The cushioning feels a little softer on the Fjuels, but that could be due to the wear on the Bs and the fact the Fjuels are new. The Fjuels are also a little heavier than the Bs, and I prefer a lighter (but strong) shoe. The Fjuel’s soles are built up more under the arch, while the Bs seem to have every extra milligram of weight carved out, and it makes a difference. The most significant difference for me, and a knick in the rating for the Fjuels, is that the contact area of the fjuel's sole is a few millimeters narrower than the B's across the widest part of the ball and across the mid-heel. I noticed this before I measured. The fjuels are the narrowest of all the Bioms I own. This is for me a negative because it reduces lateral stability. It is not so great a negative that I would return the shoe—it is great and useful to me in too many other ways—but I would be reluctant to be really active in them on uneven terrain.In short, this is a great shoe, especially great in styling and design and materials, with just one weakness, and even though it is not the best Ecco I own, it is right there near the top. I am keeping these, and I look forward to wearing them in places I would never wear the Bs.

I've never been one to have a lot of clothes or shoes. Shoes were never a fashion item for me but a necessity. Comfort was never a huge consideration either. Now that I'm older comfort is becoming more important to me. I'd heard about this brand of shoe from a friend. She said they were the most comfortable shoe she'd ever worn. My wife bought a pair and she kept going on and on about how great they were. She'd had a lawn mower accident when she was a child which left nerve damage and she's had foot pain pretty much daily since. After wearing these shoes for only a short time she swears by them. So I had to find out what the fuss was all about. I bought a pair and just trying them on and walking around a bit they felt great. I even wore them out of the store for the first time in my life. I bought these as a second pair although a different model than the first. I originally bought the next size smaller which was 43. While they did fit they felt snug in the width. I returned them and ordered the next size up which was 44. They were perfect. Not only are these shoes comfortable they look very nice. Could be worn as a semi dress shoe. The other Ecco shoe I bought has a more casual look to it. I bought those for a two week trip around the Mediterranean. I wore them every day we took tours in different countries. There was plenty of walking on varying types of terrain from cobble stones to regular concrete. I was amazed at how well these shoes did not only being able to handle uneven surfaces but also not causing my feet to be tired at the end of the day. My wife wore hers too and they also performed perfectly. These shoes are expensive, at least compared to the type of shoes I used to buy. But they are well worth the extra money. If and when these shoes wear out I'll buy this brand again.

Great support amd confortable on concrete hospital floors. This is my second pair after liking the first pair so much!!!Soft yak leather!!!

The shoes are light and comfortable. They are just dressy enough to make jeans look sharp. They might even work with Khaki style pants as well. The leather is soft and smooth - it's not the Nubuck style, which I don't tend to like as much in black. These fit in my normal size, but a probably run just a bit larger than other Ecco models. I did experience some pressure and rubbing below the ankle on one shoe, but this seems to have subsided after wearing them for half a day. It's a very comfortable shoe now. Just a word of caution: the soles seems a bit more slippery on wet surfaces than other Ecco shoes. I didn't find it dangerous, but it was noticeable. Overall I think this will be one of my favorite shoes, since they are good for walking but don't look like space shoes.

These shoes are pretty comfortable. I thought maybe they were a little too thin in the soles to be any good for walking, but they are pretty good walking shoes. The only real problem I have with them has to do with the shoe laces. They are the kind of laces that are filled with some kind of "foam." After I tie them they look all day long the way I feel when I have had too much coffee, that is, they cannot relax. They stand straight up or straight to the side with some oddly angular kinks in them, but they never ever relax. I am probably not telling anybody anything they didn't already know when I say that it is almost impossible to find any good shoe lace replacements. You are about as likely to find a good shoe lace replacement as you are likely to find a good belt buckle. It is apparently so easy to defraud people with these items that nobody takes the trouble to make good ones.

My first pair lasted a decade. The arch support is by far the most in-tune to my foot that I have experienced. Very reasonably priced for such a high quality shoe.