First off some background:  Bought my first Ecco shoe in 2001.  Over the intervening years, I have purchased a total of 8 pairs - mostly dress shoes.  Ecco's are consistently well made and long lasting.  I still have the pair I bought in 2001 but probably will retire them very soon.  I have had several pairs resoled (see [...]).  However the new soles are never as good in terms of support and grip as the originals.

I recently bought this shoe for an upcoming trip to Europe.  I wanted a very comfortable shoe that I could walk in all day and then turn around use at night for a nice restaurant.  That way I would only need to bring one pair of shoes for the trip.  So far it looks like this shoe will fill the bill.  I normally wear a size 43, but needed to upsize to a 44 for this shoe.  I take that to mean the slip-ons are smaller than normal for the indicated size.  Since I have the larger size shoe,  I too have noticed a slightly less tight fit especially in the heel of the shoe which is normally not the case.  However I believe I have solved this problem by simply adjusting the thickness of the sock I will wear with the shoe.  Otherwise the shoe is great.  Large toe box - which I really appreciate.  Comfortable to walk in.  So far I probably have a total of 10 hours in the shoes and no complaints.  Looks great.  As a test, I ran water from the faucet over the toe of the shoe for 20 seconds or so, and was pleased to see all of the water simply run off.  However to be safe, I will apply Ecco's waterproofing spray to the shoe and especially the stitching before I leave for Europe.  The soles on all of the Ecco's have always had good grip in wet weather.  So I am comfortable this shoe will perform the same.

Overall Ecco makes excellent reliable very comfortable shoes that are an excellent blend of style and functionality.  In my opinion they are well worth the extra dollars.

7/30/2010 update:  I am surprised to report that the heels of my Ecco shoes are showing noticeable wear on the outer edge of the heel.  Much more than I have experienced with my other Ecco shoes for the same period of time.  There is sort of a diamond shaped protrusion on the heel and the one on the outside side of the heel is noticeably wearing.