Over the last year we’ve scrambled through sand dunes in Peru, trekked deep into the Amazon, and hiked through some of the most remote island destinations on earth. We’ve wandered through the desert, rappelled down buildings, and trodden on the ruins of ancient Incan civilizations. So it should come as no surprise that we’ve sacrificed many soles.
My feet have been pierced by needles from cactus plants, we lost one pair of shoes to a vicious cotton-mouth snake attack, and others have succumbed to water damage after crashing a quad bike into the sea. So it was about high time, we thought, to invest in some long lasting, high quality hiking shoes.
Enter ECCO Outdoor.
Experts in outdoor clothing and equipment, we have decided ECCO is our shoe brand of choice for our upcoming adventures. And, as the newest Ambassadors for ECCO Outdoor, we’re looking forward to taking on the world in our brand new shoes.
Check them out:
This is a high quality hiking boot with state of the art technology, and feels amazing on your feet.
The shoes are comfortable, supportive and lightweight, and are fantastic for hiking across all forms of terrain.
Click on individual photos to enlarge.
Insanely tough shoes with a lot of synthetic overlays for structural integrity, your feet are fully supported.
A tough heel cage provides great heel support and means your foot is absolutely stable. It’s snug in the heel and the upper, though roomy in the front of the shoe so there is plenty of toe room for walking across all different types of terrain.
Outstanding hiking comfort is a big perk of these shoes, and ECCO have done an amazing job with the inside of the shoe. There is great cushioning, and it’s almost as if they’ve used a form of memory foam within the shoe for a great fit and feel every time.
The boot is lightweight and flexible, and is waterproof like you wouldn’t believe.
Fitted out with a Gor-tex lining, the boot comes with a 100% waterproof guarantee, ensuring dry feet at all times, though it wasn’t until I watched as water literally beaded straight off the leather that I was convinced.
This excited me to the point of tipping out the majority of my drinking water mid hike just to watch my boots repel the water.
Made from a full grain yak leather, which is three times stronger than cow hide, they’re incredibly durable too. There is also a reinforced toe cap which extends durability. The metal D ring speed lacing system and ski hooks at the top meaning great adjustability across your in-step.
For the man of the house, we chose the BIOM Ultra Quest – Mike enjoys a super lightweight and flexible shoe for his hiking exploits, so this was a no brainer.
An all round adventure shoe, it fits him like an absolute glove and is extremely slim with flexible grip and traction for any surface – you can really feel the terrain under you.
It’s a light and breathable shoe with cleats which have been built specifically for better ground contact.
Excellent foot support and comfort, the shoe is lined with a removable foot-bed for extra cushioning inside the shoe, and has a reinforced synthetic running cage for added support.
A full length Gor-tex membrane in the upper means the shoe is also waterproof.
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As ECCO Outdoor Ambassadors we were provided with complimentary shoes. All opinions are our own. No cactus plants were harmed for the photography in this post!
18 Comments
Hi Meg, The last pair I bought were for an expedition I had booked for Antarctica. Like you, waterproof was important to me. I also chose warmth. The boots I ended up with are stiff like a pair of alpine ski boots. Two years later I am using them for snow boots and still trying to break them in. Unfortunately the expedition was cancelled because they could not round up enough people for the flight from Ushuaia to Antarctica. I will be following your adventures.
Hi Doug, which company did you go with for your boots? Sorry to hear they’re too stiff!! There’s nothing worse than boots you can’t break in.
Hopefully you’ll have the chance to jump on another expedition in the future – would love to get to Antarctica – waterproof and warm would definitely be pre-requisites for footwear!
Thanks for following!
Meg, thanks for the recommendation, I will look into it! Is there a blog that addresses the cottonmouth incident, if so, let me know which one! Would love to read it!
Hi Mary! There definitely is a blog which addresses the snake bite incident – head over to http://www.mappingmegan.com/snakebite/ – it’s full of tips for dealing with snakebite overseas, and has a few of our cottonmouth photos – crazy creatures they are!
Have just linked the snakebite post into this review as well since it’s of interest :)
Glad you enjoyed this post – definitely check out the shoes if you’re looking for new boots – they’re the highest quality shoes I’ve had to date so really recommend the brand :)
Comfort is pretty much my #1 requirement in a shoe. Waterproof is great, but socks dry out faster than blisters heal! ECCO seems like great quality shoes and one for me to consider when purchasing my next pair of hiking boots! I can’t wait to see where else these comfy soles take you!
Very true! Socks do dry faster than blisters heal – especially mine, because I have a super bad habit of needing to pop them lol. ECCO really is one of the highest quality shoes you’re going to get. Highly recommend!
I am in the market for a new hiking boot/shoes. I put a lot of miles on my last pair of hiking boots over the years and on many backpacking trips. I may just have to consider these ones!
Definitely do – especially since it sounds like you hike a lot – these are super durable so I can see them being very long lasting :)
I haven’t been hiking too many times, so I’m not an experienced one. Today I did a brief hike but just used normal workout shoes (I never have proper shoes). PS: Just read you snake bite post, and, um, scary!
Definitely look at investing in some proper hiking shoes if hiking is something you’re looking at getting into properly – it’ll be well worth the investment, as your normal shoes will wear out really quickly, and arent usually suitable for all different types of terrain :)
The snakebite was definitely a scary situation! Need to be more careful and watch where we’re hiking!!!
The flexible grip and traction works for me Megan.
Fab review.
We need to move away from the flip flop bit to invest in some hiking boots/shoes.
Sneakers don’t cut it in most of these exotic locales.
Thanks much,
Ryan
Thanks Ryan – so glad you enjoyed the review – I learned pretty quickly that sneakers don’t exactly cut it when I was hiking a few months ago through the desert – seriously, cactus spines just went straight through the shoe and into my foot! Hurt like a bitch lol!
This is perfect – I’ve actually been thinking about getting real hiking boots for a while now! I’m going to look into getting a pair of these for myself! I’ve been going in plain old running shoes for too long now.
Running shoes end up getting old pretty quickly especially if you do a lot of hiking – the great thing about proper hiking shoes is that they’re super durable and really able to tackle all forms of terrain – I dont know how many pairs of running shoes we wore through before we upgraded lol :)
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This article literally solved my hiking shoe buying problems in no time. I’ve been painfully researching, gone to hundreds of stores looking for the elusive perfect boots for my need. Most of them don’t fit, the ones that do are ugly which makes versatility impossible or they aren’t waterproof/comfortable enough. After reading this article I went into ECCO and all my problems were solved.
Hi Britt! I’m so glad! ECCO really does shine well above any other brand in terms of offering everything in one shoe – they’re super comfortable, super technical, very waterproof, and best of all they actually look good!
I’m so glad you’re happy with your new boots, and I’m psyched we were able to help you find them.
Happy hiking!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this pair. Is it waterproof? I need to find a replacement hiking boots and I am usually annoyed by boots promising to be waterproof but aren’t!
Hi Sauer – the Womens BIOM hike GTX is very waterproof – click through to the ECCO site and they have the same options of waterproof boots for men.
I used these for hiking over glaciers in Alaska, and am happy to just walk straight through shallow rivers while wearing them – not a drop gets in.
Let me know if you have any other questions & would be happy to help :)