Breaking the Boundaries of Traditional Shoe Design
When design experts say “ECCO” they also say Ejnar Truelsen, the lead designer behind ECCO Joke, Track, Shark, Biom and Soft, the best-selling ECCO shoe of all time. He is also the man who had the idea of printing the company’s logo on the rubber sole of the shoe so that people all over the world can see if someone wearing an ECCO shoe walked on the beach before them. Ejnar Truelsen is ECCO, and ECCO is Ejnar Truelsen. His address is Ecco Alléen 2. He not only designs shoes; he has also designed the world famous logo. He grew up in Bredebro – like the company – and started working at the ECCO factory as a modeller in 1971. From 1973 to 1977 he studied drawing and graphic design at Kolding School of Arts and Crafts, but after serving in the Civil Defence and a job at an advertising agency he was back in Bredebro in 1979, now as a designer. But he never really left. He actually came up with one of his and ECCO’s most successful designs, Joke, while sketching for a project at school.
During his multi-year career at ECCO Ejnar Truelsen has managed to constantly renew and further develop ECCO’s design profile without sacrificing its heritage, recognisability and history. “Here, I am free to be an individual and to transform my ideas into reality. I see it as my task to constantly challenge and push the boundaries of what is possible in production. Sometimes I design shoes that no one believes can be made, but I insist because I believe so strongly in the idea. It is a great feeling when we succeed in finding a way to make it happen,” he says.
Over the years, he has consistently designed shoes with unique personalities and their very own look. He draws his greatest inspiration from watching people as they go about their lives, and interact with each other.
He says that his tools are life, the pulse of the time and the streetscape. “People inspire me. When I spot a new design talent it’s often their ability to combine things that fascinates me. They have to have an edge”.
With multiple successes behind him ECCO’s lead designer may sometimes sense the expectations and the pressure to deliver something new. Again. “When I am drawing, really drawing, I am not very sociable,” he admits. But he has not yet run out of inspiration and ideas.
The process differs widely from shoe to shoe, but it always starts with paper and pencil, he says. His office reflects that. It has two desks, one with paper and pencil, the other with a computer and advanced drawing programs. And then he has a chest filled with shoes which can be closed in a hurry when guests arrive who are not supposed to have a look. Not yet at any rate.
He thinks back to the 1980s with great pleasure. “The decision processes were short, ECCO was a young product and in a league of its own. We were extremely innovative and it made me proud.”
In the 1990s the company did not experiment quite as much, but in 2003 Truelsen once again broke the ‘sound barrier’ by launching the shoe Shark. “Shark actually lay dormant for a number of years, because no one believed it was possible to manufacture it. So Shark was waiting for someone who was brave enough,” he says.
Once an interviewer asked him what he thinks when he sees his design walk past? “That depends on who is wearing it! But I am content when I see that people like my shoes. It only works when people like them.”
“How many pairs of shoes do you yourself have?” asked the interviewer. “Not as many as you think; maybe 40 or 50 pairs. But I have to admit I find it hard to throw them away.” Thus Ejnar Truelsen is a great proponent for the core concept that his alma mater – where he is now an Honorary Professor – is advocating: Creating sustainability by creating things people like so much that they want to use them again and again and never discard.
