The History of UGGs

Written by: Anna Pafenberg

When most people think of traditional UGG boots, they think of getting ready on a cozy fall morning. Maybe they pour a cup of coffee and look out on the crisp leaves in their neighborhood. In fact, the opposite is true. UGGs were trademarked to be worn by surfers! Who would have thought that a shoe associated with comfort and coziness was actually made famous by someone who would mainly be wearing them at the beach!

Throughout history, sheepskin boots have been used by farmers and sheep herders to keep nice and warm throughout cold winters. The earliest recorded sheep-skin boots were in the 1800's in Australia. War pilots specifically used them to keep their feet warm up in the cold air. The first time they were manufactured was in New South Wales in the 1930’s. The man who made them called them “UGG boots” because his wife called them ugly. Finally, in the ‘70’s, surfers on the Gold Coast of Australia started to make Ugg boots popular. They would purchase them and put them on after they surfed because their feet would get cold. Soon. Shane Stedman, a famous surfer from Sydney, told the public that he wore them and that he even invented them. This wasn’t true, but he was the very first person to trademark them for a profit. Another surfer named Brian Smith decided to bring a suitcase full of them to America. This was because surfing magazines in southern California started to show them. Soon Brian trademarked the name “UGG”. The boots were extremely popular, not only because of their warm and soft quality, but because they were from Australia. They were all made in Australia after all. 

In 1995, he sold the corporation to Decker’s for over 14 million dollars. Soon they started to sue people in Australia because they were continuing to manufacture sheep-skin boots that were not the American UGG. There started to be confusion about whether the boots made in Australia that were called UGGs and whether they were the same as the trademarked version in America. 

All in all, UGGs have been a key part of Australian and American fashion for decades. At one point, they accounted for about 80% of the global boot market. They have had a large cultural impact that is incredibly hard to beat. The American brand has expanded all over the world and includes a homeware brand and many other branches of the company.

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