I always appreciate golf shoes. However, I’ve reviewed so many now that I’m often looking for new and exciting ways to test them so I don’t fall into too much of a routine. Now, more so than before, my first port of call is the brand’s press release. Frequently full of hyperbole, I like to compare some of the more exaggerated promises to my real experience with the shoe. With Ecco’s latest offering – the Street 720- the line that stood out was a declaration that these shoes, ‘designed to be worn all day and night, it offers big city vibes with a birdie mentality.’ With this at the very top of the marketing release from Ecco, this review will spend more time focusing on my off-course experience than on my on-course testing. In fact, I decided to take this concept for a spin so, before I even laced this up to play golf in, I headed for dinner, drinks and karaoke on the streets of Birmingham in my new Street 720s.
My friends described the shoes as ‘inoffensive’, and I took this as a huge compliment. No one thought they were golf shoes and the modern design more than blends in with what everyone else had on their feet. Some golf shoe-specific brands that have attempted off-course shoes do far too much in the way of branding and thus make it a shoe by a golf brand. Most golfers, myself included, don’t want fellow members of the public to know they’re golfers automatically via their footwear. Ecco has done the right thing by eliminating almost all the branding and keeping it subtle. That’s not to say these are a dull-looking shoe, there are some neat design touches that make for a modern and versatile silhouette that will match pretty much any outfit you put it with, especially in the off-white color way I was testing it in.
Can you see the resemblance to the Nike Air Force shoe in the toe area?
(Image credit: Future)
My colleague Joe, who has a way with words, described the shoe saying, ‘It’s like a Nike Air Force 1 had a child with a pair of Crocs’. This made me laugh and was likely a little dig at the look of the shoe. I can see where he’s coming from. From a top-down view, the front half of the shoe has an uncanny resemblance to the toe area of the Air Force and the holes on the side of the shoe are certainly Croc-ish. Take a look at the shoes and make your mind up, but I for one think they look superb. Clean, modern and stylish with the ‘Croc holes’ Joe described adding some visual variety that I appreciated.
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