Ecco has some truly great designer/engineers, and the ones who created the Biom ...
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.