[dude]

The Ecco BIOM
Friday, December 12th, 2008
The reason for my recent trip to Denmark was the Ecco BIOM, a new running shoe engineered on the principle of natural joint motion. In recent years it has become increasingly accepted as fact that conventional running shoes alter the natural kinematics of the running stride in ways that increase injury risk and reduce performance. Biomechanics experts such as G.P. Bruggemann of the University of Cologne have called for manufacturers to develop footwear that allows the joints to move more naturally during running so that injury risk will be reduced and performance will increase. Ecco hired Dr. Bruggeman as a consultant for the development of BIOM, which emerges a manifestation of his ideas about what a running shoe should be.

Perhaps the most important characteristic of the BIOM is its low heel. Lowering the heel reduces the amount of ankle supination and the degree of ankle dorsiflexion on initial footstrike, as well as the rate of ankle plantar flexion and pronation as the footstrike phase transitions into the stance phase. All of these changes make the stride more like that of barefoot running.

Another interesting characteristic of the BIOM is a shank in the midsole that provides lateral stiffness in the heel and midfoot to facilitate the efficient transfer of forces from the heel to the forefoot during the ground contact phase of the stride. This shank branches and opens up in the forefoot to allow the forefoot freedom of movement for a more powerful pushoff. A wide toebox that permits the toes to spread slightly when applying force to the ground, as they do in barefoot running, as facilitates a more forceful toe-off.

I’ve now run in the BIOM twice. The first things I noticed about its feel were its closeness to the ground and the stiffness and hardness of its platform. Because of the latter, the BIOM is less comfortable than the Nike Free, another minimalist shoe that Dr. Bruggemann had a hand in developing. Yet in this regard the BIOM actually feels more like barefoot running. When I run barefoot on sand, for example, I am conscious of really tensing up the musculature of my lower legs and feet to absorb impact and capture and reuse energy from impact. In the BIOM I have much the same feeling. The soles of these shoes are so hard and stiff that they make a click-clack sound on pavement, but I am also conscious of a lightning-quick forward transfer of energy. Although I’ve never worn them, I imagine that the BIOM is a bit like those stiff sprinter’s shoes that are designed to minimize energy dissipation and ground contact time.

I expect many runners to not like the feel of the BIOM, and that’s their right. But I have a feeling that the BIOM is the kind of shoe that one can learn to love. Its makers at Ecco are very upfront about the need to give the body time to adjust to the feel of running in the BIOM. Ecco-sponsored professional triathlete Torbjorn Sindballe says it took him several months. I am interested to see how I feel about the BIOM after I’ve been wearing it for a few weeks. I plan to add it to my regular shoe rotation with the Nike Free 3.0 and the Nike Lunar Lite Racer. Perhaps the most telling indicator of how much I like the BIOM will be how much I look forward to my BIOM runs versus my Free and Lunar Lite runs.

The one thing I don’t like about the BIOM already is its weight. It weighs nearly twice as much as my Lunar Lite Racers. That’s a consequence of Ecco’s decision to use plyurethane instead of EVA in the midsole. PU is denser, which is what allowed Ecco to get the heel so low to the ground, but it’s also heavier. I’ve already told the Ecco folks how I feel about the weight and I expect that they will be able to reduce it in future versions.

A final note: The upper of the Ecco BIOM is made of yak leather. It’s everything you need the upper material of a running shoe to be–light, thin, comfortable and breathable–but most of all, it’s a conversation starter.

http://mattfitzgerald.org/blog/?p=188