The woolly history of UGG boots

The woolly history of UGG boots

UGG boots are an Australian invention loved by millions of people around the world. But while the concept is ours, the right to use the UGG name has been the subject of a long legal fight. Earlier this month, the Aussie credited with launching the boots commercially in modern times, Shane Stedman, died… He was the first to trademark the term ‘Ugh boots’ and sell them to surfers, paving the way for them to become a global fashion staple. It’s quite a ride, so strap in for a bit of a different Squiz Shortcut, where we look at:

• The origins of the UGG boot

• Stedman’s legacy

• And the fight over the UGG name

🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Larissa Huntington and Sophie Felice

Prefer this in your ears?

Listen to our podcast 🎧

Listen time: 10 minutes

Squiz the Shortcut

This one’s out of the blue… Why are you telling me about UGG boots?
We mentioned it was getting cold enough to dig out our UGGs recently in the Squiz Today podcast and newsletter, and a Squizer, Steve, wrote to us. Thanks Steve… He wanted to let us know that his friend Shane Stedman, the first Aussie to make and sell the boots commercially in modern times, had died on 1 May. And in a couple of lines, he had us hooked. 

Who was Shane Stedman?
By all accounts, an all-round great bloke who led a full life centred around his passion for surfing and making surfboards, and his family. And not many people might know this, but surfing and surf culture played a big part in the early development of the UGG, and it’s how Stedman first came across the idea.

Tell me more…
So, legend has it, he first saw a kind of makeshift version of the boots in the early 1970s when he was visiting surfboard customers in Victoria. One of them had his feet wrapped in sheepskin to keep them warm. The ‘boots’ were held together loosely with masking tape and resin, and when Stedman asked him what they were called, the reply was ‘Ugh boots’. 

So they were already a thing…?
Yep, but they weren’t widely known, so Stedman saw an opportunity and asked his friend if he could start making them, and so it began… He started selling them to the surfing community in Australia and they took off from there. But before we go on, we mentioned they were already known as Ugh/Ugg boots - so let’s back it up a bit because their first iterations date back to the 19th century…

Who was using them back then?
There are records of shepherds in the 1800s wrapping sheepskin around their feet and ankles tied with leather straps to keep warm… And by the 1920s, they’d morphed into proper boots and were common among shearers in rural Australia - and there was a good reason for that…

What was that?
It was because the sheepskin could cope with the lanolin from sheep’s wool, which was known to saturate ordinary leather boots and soften them so much they lost their rigidity. So early on, UGGs were basically workwear - and that continued into World War I…

How were they used in the war?
Australian and British pilots were said to have used sheepskin boots because cockpits weren’t pressurised and temperatures while flying could get freezing cold. Some reckon those pilots called them ‘flying uggs’ - short for ugly - and that’s one story of where the name came from. 

Was anyone selling them back then?
The first known producer was Blue Mountains Ugg Boots in NSW, which started selling them on a small scale to tourists in the 1930s. Then in the late 1950s, Frank Mortel began making them through Mortels Sheepskin Factory and claimed he was the first to call them ‘ugg boots’ after his wife looked at an early pair and said they were ugly. So as you can see, there’s a bit of overlap in who sold them first and where the term ‘Ugg’ comes from - but one thing that’s clear is that they’re an Australian invention. 

So when did they go national?
Even though they’d been around for decades, they weren’t really a national thing until they started being picked up by surfers in the 1960s and 70s… That’s where Stedman comes in. He was the first person to see the larger commercial opportunity, and he trademarked them as ‘Ugh’ boots in the 1970s and started making them for surfers. As you might imagine, they took to them in droves because they were the perfect thing to pull on after an early morning surf to keep warm. 

Who took them global?
After they became part of the beach lifestyle, another surfer named Brian Smith saw the demand for the boots and decided to take a suitcase of them over to California in the late ‘70s. That idea was a huge success - they sold quickly and his next move was to set up a business called UGG Holdings. And this is a big turning point in the story…

What happened?
Smith and his business partner registered UGG as a trademark in the US and worked hard to build it up. By the mid-1980s, they’d also registered Original UGG Boot UGG Australia - now, that might sound like a lot of words, but it was very strategic… 

How so?
In 1995, Smith bought Stedman’s trademarks ‘Ugh’ and ‘Ugh boots’ back in Oz too… So that meant he owned both the US and Australian rights to the name. It was a super timely move because the boots were getting traction in the US with big names in surfing by then, and celebrities like Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson and supermodel Kate Moss had jumped on board the growing trend - and they weren’t just wearing them on the beach…

Enter a new era…
Yep, this was when UGGS made the transition from the beach (or being thought of as daggy or just for wearing at home) to being fashionable enough to wear around the streets - and that took demand for them to a whole new level. It also meant that some big companies came knocking…  

What did Smith do?
In 1995, the same year that Smith bought the rights to the ‘Ugh’ name from Stedman, he sold the company and all the rights to US company Deckers Brands for US$14.6 million. If you’re not familiar with Deckers, they’re a huge outdoor/leisurewear company who also own HOKA and Teva, 2 other popular footwear brands you might know. 

What were their plans for UGG?
Reports about the sale say they were interested in UGG because they saw potential for them in more than just surf culture - but almost immediately after buying the business, they moved manufacturing of the boots completely offshore. 

Why did they do that?
They said it was to expand the range into winter sports (think, snow sports and the accompanying fashion that goes with it). And it quickly caught on... By the early 2000s, Oprah had included UGGs on her ‘favourite things’ list and other pop-culture celebrities like Paris Hilton were photographed wearing them, which sent sales through the roof. 

Did some Australian companies continue to make them?
Because of their popularity, Deckers was raking in the cash - and some Aussie companies making homegrown versions of the boots were also doing well and still using the UGG name. Deckers didn’t like that, and as they held the rights to the name, they started sending ‘cease and desist' notices to those Aussie companies to stop them from using the term UGG in any of their branding both here and overseas…

How did they take that?
It made local manufacturers furious because the term Ugg boots was seen here as more of a generic term for that style of sheepskin boot. It was like someone trademarking ‘thongs’ or ‘gumboots’. 

What did they do about it?
It kicked off years of legal fights. Local companies banned together and argued that the word had been used generically here for generations… The matter came to a head in 2006 when a Perth company called Uggs-N-Rugs won the right to use the term in Australia. The judge said the evidence overwhelmingly showed ‘ugg’, ‘ugh’ and ‘ug’ were all common descriptions for that style of boot in this country. It was a big win - but only in Australia. 

Hang on… What does that mean?
Deckers still owns the UGG trademark in most countries, including huge markets like the US, Europe and most of Asia. It means that Australian makers can call them UGG or Ugg boots here, but if they want to sell them overseas, they mostly need a different name. And it’s still causing drama - at the start of last year, Aussie company UGG Since 1974 announced it’d be ditching the UGG part of its branding, so it’ll just go by Since 1974 for international sales due to ongoing legal pressure from Deckers. 

What’s the UGG brand worth now?
It’s huge… UGGs are just as popular with Gen Zs as they were with millennials and X-ers. Just this week, Deckers said they were expecting more strong quarterly results, with new styles of UGGs partly driving them. To put a number to it, last year alone, UGG sales netted the company sales of more than US$2.5 billion globally (that’s around AU$3.8 billion).

What a yarn…
It’s pretty remarkable for something that started as a piece of sheepskin tied to a shepherd’s feet. But to loop back to the beginning, the legacy belongs to Shane Stedman too. He might not have invented the Ugg boot, but he recognised the concept had a lot of commercial potential. But even though they went on to become an Aussie fashion icon, he never made squillions out of them. According to his son Luke, he was happier having surfing and surfboard making as his main game. But he did apparently negotiate one very handy clause when he sold his rights…

What was that?
A free pair of UGGs every year for 10 years - which reportedly kept arriving well beyond it… 

That’s not a bad bonus… 
Not at all - and it’s well deserved for giving the world the UGG boot, which, culturally, Australians will always see as ours. So next time you slip your feet into a pair, you’ll know how they came to be. Thanks Shane Stedman… 

Onto our Recommendations

Listening: This radio interview by Tim Webster on Sydney station 2SM with Shane Stedman’s son, Luke, talks about Shane’s early days as a surf reporter and his connection to UGG boots

Reading: This piece from The Conversation dives into the fight over the UGG name…

Winter fabrics fixed…

Merino wool and cashmere sound fab - until your jumper pills or loses its shape by lunchtime. Australian brand Paire has gone back to the fibre itself, changing how it’s made so your garment breathes better, holds its shape, and feels lighter than you'd expect. The AW26 collection is available now.

Recent Shortcuts