ELLE Competition

A winning design

Back in April, ECCO involved ELLE readers for the first time in an exercise, worldwide competition to create a fabulous new shoe design – and the results are in…

Thousands of participants from 15 different countries seized the opportunity to release their inner designer and set their own personal trends in footwear. As for the reasons why they picked Anna Labinskaya’s design as the winner, the jury says she successfully captured the spirit of ECCO shoes: style and comfort, with extreme feminity. Her model won them over with its very simple creativity and its polished design.

In order to see more of the creative process, Anna was given the chance to see her shoes created and sold in limited numbers as a special edition in selected ECCO stores.


The winner Anna Labinskaya

Anna is a software development and IT manager, living in Moscow. When she’s not working, Anna enjoys spending time with her husband, drawing, and like every fashionista, she gets her inspiration from numerous shopping trips! Anna drew what she felt were the perfect shoes: stylish, comfortable, light and easy to put on, yet very elegant and feminine. Even now, Anna can hardly believe that her design won the ECCO DESIGN COMPETITION 2008.


From drawing to the real shoe

The great thing about the ECCO design competition is that the winner gets to follow her design from the drawing to the end of the production line. So imagine how Anna felt when she arrived at the ECCO headquarters in Denmark to work on her own model of shoes. The highly advanced direct injection technology ensures Anna’s shoe has the anatomical shape, the suppleness and lightness characterising an ECCO shoe. She proudly went back to Moscow with the first pair of shoes manufactured with her own design. Anna was delighted to possess the first ever pair of prize-winning special-edition ECCO shoes.