ECCO.com

A man and his dream

Innovation without compromise

Karl Toosbuy – the founder of ECCO – had a dream. He wanted to own a shoe factory and run his own business. Trained from an early age as a shoemaker, he gradually rose through the ranks and by his early 30’ies was managing a shoe factory in Copenhagen. The business, however, was not his.

The family decided to give up the security of a regular job, sell their home and move to Bredebro on the west coast of Denmark, just north of the German border. Karl and Birte Toosbuy and their 5-year-old daughter, Hanni, rented a small house and took over an empty factory built by the local community to help create jobs in what was a predominantly agricultural town.

Where it all began

From humble beginnings to the breakthrough

Farmland stretched for miles around the small factory building on the outskirts of Bredebro where Birte and Karl Toosbuy had assembled a small team to get production up and running. Initially limited to ladies’ shoes under the Venus brand, it was a tough start. The Toosbuys worked extremely long hours, tackled endless problems and sometimes doubted whether they would succeed.

The first real breakthrough came in the late 1970s when ECCO’s designer Ejnar Truelsen created the “JOKE”. This was followed by a series of other revolutionary shoes, some of which are still in production today. Karl Toosbuy bought his first direct injection machine to apply high-tech production technology to the business. So confident was he in the machine that he bought a second one before the results from the first had materialised.

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Vision

Our Vision

To be the best shoe company in the world

Being visionary is fundamental for seeing and achieving your desired future state. At ECCO our vision is to be the best shoe company in the world. We are the only major shoe company to own and operate our own production and retail facilities. And we constantly innovate to improve our ability to make shoes that follow the foot.

Values

Our Values

At ECCO we are guided by our respect for our heritage, our call for innovation, our quest for excellence, our dedication to care, and our passion.

Because we respect and value our heritage, we base our work on quality craftsmanship. We challenge conventions, strive for uniqueness, encourage change and make room for individual creativity to drive innovation. We constantly raise the bar and deliver the highest achievable quality in our quest for excellence. We care about creating and maintaining strong, positive relationships with our colleagues, our partners, our customers and the societies in which we live and work. We act with integrity and we respect and encourage diversity. We are a passionate organisation, filled with people who are passionate and build their work on what they love to do.