Ugg boots

This article is about a style of footwear. It is not to be confused with Sheepskin boots.
For the American brand known as "UGG", see UGG Australia.
A pair of ugg boots

Ugg boots (sometimes called uggs)[1] is a term for a unisex style of sheepskin boot developed in Australia and New Zealand. The boots are typically made of twin-faced sheepskin with fleece on the inside, a tanned outer surface and a synthetic sole. The term, ugg boots, originated from Australia, initially for utilitarian footwear worn for warmth, and which were often worn by surfers during the 1960s. In the 1970s, the boots were introduced to the surf culture of the United Kingdom and the United States. Sheepskin boots became a fashion trend in the U.S. in the late 1990s and as a world-wide trend in the mid-2000s. In Australia, they are worn predominantly as slippers and often associated with "daggy" fashion sense, and "bogan" culture.[2] Noteworthy Australian manufacturers of ugg boots include Luda Productions (which has roughly 75 percent of the market share in Australia[3]), EMU Australia, and Uggs-N-Rugs.

Prior legal disputes between some manufacturers of sheepskin boots arose as to distinguish whether "ugg" is a protected trademark, or a generic term and thus ineligible for trademark protection. There are more than 70 registered trademarks that include the term "ugg" in various logos and designs in Australia and New Zealand, as the term is considered a generic reference to a type of shoe. Ugg is trademarked in other parts of the world for footwear-related products.[4][5][6][7]

History

Cutting boot pieces from a sheepskin using a cutting press
Stitching the innersole of an Australian ugg boot

There are different claims to the origins of the ugg boot style. Artisanal sheepskin boots were known in rural Australia during the 1920s,[8] and were reportedly worn by shearers as they found them resistant to wool yolk, which would rot their ordinary boots. However, the date of commercial manufacturing began remains unclear. The boots were reportedly being manufactured in 1933 by Blue Mountains Ugg Boots of New South Wales.[9] Frank Mortel of Mortels Sheepskin Factory has stated that he began manufacturing the boots in the late 1950s.[10][11] Surfer Shane Stedman of Australia has stated in interviews that he invented the ugg boot.[12] Perth sheepskin boot manufacturers Bruce and Bronwyn McDougall of Uggs-N-Rugs have manufactured the boots since the late 1970s.[13]

The origin of the term "ugg" is also unclear. Stedman registered the trademark "UGH-BOOTS" in Australia in 1971, and in 1982 registered the "UGH" trademark.[14] Frank Mortel claims that he named his company's sheepskin boots "ugg boots" in 1958 after his wife commented that the first pair he made were "ugly."[15][16][17] Some accounts have suggested that the term grew out of earlier variations, such as the "fug boots" worn by United Kingdom Royal Air Force pilots during World War I.[18]

The 1970s saw the emergence of advertising using the UGG and UGH terms both in trade names and as a generic term in Australia.[1] The Macquarie Dictionary of the Australian language first included a definition for "ugg boot" as a generic term for sheepskin boots in its 1981 edition.[13] (After Stedman complained to the editors of Macquarie, a trademark notation was added to subsequent editions indicating that "UGH" was a trade mark).[1]

In the 1970s, ugg boots became popular among competitive surfers.[13][16][19] After movie theatres in Sydney banned ugg boots and ripped jeans, the footwear became somewhat popular in the youth market as a sign of rebellion.[20] Sheepskin footwear accounts for around 10 percent of footwear production in Australia.[21]

International sales

Surfing helped popularise the boots outside Australia and New Zealand. Advertisements for Australian sheepskin boots first appeared in Californian surf magazines in 1970.[22] By the mid-1970s, several surf shops in Santa Cruz, California and the San Fernando Valley were selling a limited number of boots purchased by the shops' owners while visiting surfing events in Australia.[23] In 1978, a Western Australian manufacturer of sheepskin boots, Country Leather, advertised outside Australia for distributors to sell its sheepskin boots, which were made from sheepskin sourced from Jackson's Tannery in Geelong, Victoria.[23] Seeing the popularity of the boots among American surfers, Australian surfer Brian Smith, then living in Santa Monica, California, bought boots from Country Leather but was unhappy with the brand and decided to register UGG as his own trademark. Family friends invested $20,000 into the new venture and the group set up Ugg Imports.[23] Due to other business commitments, in 1979 Jensen handed over his share of the company to Smith. In 1987 Smith registered Ugg Holdings Inc. and in 1985 registered a U.S. trademark on a ram's head logo with the words "Original UGG Boot UGG Australia." In 1995, Ugg Holdings purchased Stedman's various trademarks.[23] As for the ugg name, Smith stated: "We always called them uggs, long before it was trademarked."[24]

Shoe manufacturer Hide & Feet in Newquay, Cornwall began manufacturing sheepskin boots in 1973, and in 1990 Nick Whitworth and his wife Kath bought the business and registered "UGG" as a trade mark in the UK. Due to increasing popularity and sales, in 1991 the company changed its name to "The Original Ugg Co." In 1999, Whitworth sold the company name and the British UGG trade mark to Deckers Outdoor Corporation, renaming his company the Celtic Sheepskin Company.[25]

By 1994, UGG boots had grown in status among surfers in California with 80% of sales in southern Orange County where Ugg Holdings saw an increase in sales of 60 percent on the previous season. Smith's UGG boots gained international exposure when they were worn by the U.S. Olympic team in Lillehammer for the 1994 Winter Olympics.[26] Australian manufacturers also saw an increase in exports of sheepskin boots to the United States, although Ugg Holdings retained an estimated 80% market share. By the end of the year, Country Leather had opened its own shop in Redondo Beach to promote an expansion of the brand from its established surf market into mainstream footwear sales and Ugg Holdings began sourcing UGG boots directly from Jackson's Tannery, which had changed its name to EMU Australia.[21][27] In early 1995, Smith promoted the UGG AUSTRALIA brand on the Rush Limbaugh show, which spurred sales while the brand gained further exposure when the San Diego Chargers started wearing them. According to retailers, it was not just the footwear that attracted consumers, but the "made in Australia" tie-in as the boots were a unique product only available from Australia and Australian products were at that time very popular.[21][26] In August 1995, Smith sold Ugg Holdings to Deckers Outdoor Corporation for $14.6 million.[22][28][29] In 1996 Deckers registered the various trademarks for "UGG" in the U.S.[6][30]

Australian ugg boots are not considered fashionable in their country of origin but are worn for warmth and comfort.[22] The boots were worn predominantly as slippers and associated with "daggy fashion sense, bogan behaviour" and the "outer suburbs" when worn in public.[2][31][32][33] According to Australian fashion stylist Justin Craig: "The only people who get away with wearing them are models, who give out the message: 'I'm so beautiful, I can look good in any crap."[24]

Design

Fashion ugg boots

Traditional Australian ugg boots are made from sheepskins with fleece attached. The fleece is tanned into the leather and the boot is assembled with the fleece on the inside. Some ugg boots have a synthetic sole, commonly made from Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA). The stitching is often prominent on the outside of the boot. The natural insulative properties of sheepskin gives isothermal properties to the boots: the thick fleecy fibres on the inner part of the boots wick moisture and allow air to circulate, keeping the feet at body temperature[34] and allowing the boots to keep feet warm in cold weather and cool in hot weather.[35] Produced by a number of manufacturers, they come in a variety of colours, including black, pink, blue, chestnut, and fuchsia.[36] They are available in both pull-on and lace-up varieties and their height can range from just above the ankle to above the knee.[36]

Some variations of ugg style boots have also been made from kangaroo fur and leather. There are also synthetic boots. Although derided as "fake" by some in the industry, their lower price made them appealing to large retail chains such as Myer.[37]

Animal rights

Similar to the sourcing of leather, sheep-skin is a by-product of processing sheep for human consumption. That is, sheep are not specifically killed for their skins. Because it is a by-product, the supply of sheep-skin is limited by the number of sheep processed for the meat industry. The rise in the popularity of "UGG"-branded ugg boots has been the "driving force" in recent shortages, which have seen sheep-skin prices from 2010 to 2012 increase by up to 80%.[38]

Being one of many clothing products made from animal skin, the production of sheepskin boots has been the subject of criticism by the animal rights movement with producers responding by improving animal welfare.[39] Animal rights groups call for the boycott of sheepskin boots and their replacement with synthetic alternatives.[40] In 2007, Pamela Anderson, realizing that the boots were made of skin, called for a boycott on her website.[41] In February 2008, the Princeton Animal Welfare Society staged a campus protest against the fur industry, particularly attacking the sheepskin boot industry.[42]

Trademark disputes

The trademarking of the UGG name has been the subject of dispute in several countries. Deckers Outdoor Corporation has won disputes in the United States,[43] the Netherlands,[44] and Turkey.[45] In Australia and New Zealand, ugg is a generic term. Outside Australia and New Zealand, UGG (written in capital letters) is a registered trademark of Deckers Outdoor Corporation.[43]

The first trademark application for UGG in the United States was filed by Brian Smith’s company in 1984.[46] In the 1990s, Smith and then Deckers secured additional registrations in the U.S. and other countries.[6][30] In 1999, Deckers began asserting its new trademark and sent out cease and desist letters to Australian manufacturers that were selling sheepskin boots outside of Australia via the internet.[5] Deckers' law firm Middletons of Melbourne sent cease and desist letters to a number of Australian and U.S. based manufacturers, preventing them from selling sheepskin boots using the UGG trademark on eBay or from using the word in their registered business names or domain names.[37][47] Deckers initiated numerous domain name actions under the UDRP.[48][49]

Perth's Uggs-N-Rugs, who had been manufacturing ugg boots since 1978 and selling them online since 1996, appealed to Australian trademark regulators.[5] In 2006, Uggs-N-Rugs won the right to use the term UGG BOOT/S and variations such as UGH BOOT/S within Australia.[5] IP Australia also ruled that the trademark "UGH-boots" (with hyphen) should be removed from the trademark register for non-use as Deckers had only been using the UGG logo, not the UGH marks.[5][6] This 2006 ruling applies only in Australia and Deckers still owns the trademarks in other jurisdictions such as the US, China, Japan and the European Union.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Thompson, Ian. "Decision of a Delegate of the Registrar of Trade Marks with Reasons" (PDF). 16 January 2006. IP Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 July 2008. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  2. 1 2 The uggly side of life The Age, 27 September 2006.
  3. ↑ Davies, Celia. "UGG AUSTRALIA: fight over trade mark" (PDF). Freehills Patent & Trade. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
  4. ↑ Kell, John (9 December 2010). "Emu Australia amused by Deckers lawsuit over 'ugg', 'ugg boot' trademarks". The Australian. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Marks, Kathy (18 January 2006). "Ugg: How a minnow put the boot into a fashion giant". The Independent. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  6. 1 2 3 4 The battle of the UGG BOOT continues Hynes Lawyers 11 February 2011
  7. ↑ Trade Marks Hearings 16 January 2006. Decision of a delegate of the registrar of trade marks with reasons. Pg 10
  8. ↑ Terry, Andrew; Forrest, Heather (2008). "Where's the Beef? Why Burger King Is Hungry Jack's in Australia and Other Complications in Building a Global Franchise Brand". Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business, 2008 28 (2): 188. ISSN 0196-3228.
  9. ↑ Gee, Steve (23 January 2004). "Uggly Americans — The Yanks steal another one of our beaut ideas". Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia). p. 7.
  10. ↑ "What's in a name?". Central Coast Express (Sydney, Australia). 9 March 2004. p. 20.
  11. ↑ Marks, Kathy (19 January 2006). "These boots are made for litigation". The New Zealand Herald (Auckland, New Zealand). Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  12. ↑ "Ugg inventor Shane Stedman happy to trade dollars for surf". News.com.au, originally reported by Sydney Morning Herald. 15 February 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  13. 1 2 3 "The Good, The Bad and The Ugg Boot". 2006. Austrialian Screen, National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  14. ↑ "IP Australia Ugg Boot Fact Sheet". 2006. Government of Australia, IP Australia.
  15. ↑ Hansard transcript House Of Representatives 17 February 2004
  16. 1 2 Marks, Kathy (17 February 2004). "There's no business like shoe business". The Independent (London, United Kingdom). Retrieved 17 November 2009.
  17. ↑ Marks, Kathy (19 January 2006). "These boots are made for litigation". The New Zealand Herald (Auckland, New Zealand). p. 33. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
  18. ↑ "What's in a name?". Central Coast Express. 9 March 2004. p. 20.
  19. ↑ Burgess, Dave (12 July 2008). "An ugg boot is an ug boot is an ugh boot". The Dominion Post (Wellington, New Zealand). p. A17.
  20. ↑ The Ugg inventor who gave £500m the boot Mail Online 14 February 2011
  21. 1 2 3 McAllister, Robert The Aussie invasion. Australian footwear manufacturers export to the U.S. Footwear News. Condé Nast Publications 6 February 1995. HighBeam Research accessed 6 May 2012
  22. 1 2 3 Conley, Lucas Behind the Brand: The Golden Fleece Wall Street Journal 9 September 2010.
  23. 1 2 3 4 Brian Smith Booty Call Los Angeles Magazine 1 October 2001 Pg 75
  24. 1 2 From Ugg to uglier The Telegraph 29 February 2004
  25. ↑ "Our History". Celtic Sheepskin Co. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  26. 1 2 Foster, Caryl Ugg's going mainstream with slimmer boots Footwear News. Condé Nast Publications 14 February 1994. HighBeam Research accessed 7 September 2012
  27. ↑ Cronin, Emily The story of Ugg The Daily Telegraph 30 January 2011
  28. ↑ Abkowitz, Alyssa (19 August 2009). "Deckers finds its footing with Uggs". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
  29. ↑ "Deckers Outdoor completes acquisition of UGG Holdings (Press release)". Business Wire. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
  30. 1 2 Fink, Karl V.; Johnson, Carolyn M.; Miranda, David P. (5 February 2004), "UGG Holdings, Inc. and Deckers Outdoor Corporation v. Paul Barclay d/b/a Australian Made Goods", National Arbitration Forum. Retrieved 25 August 2010
  31. ↑ The boganvillea is flowering and the hats are on the Kat The Age 23 June 2011
  32. ↑ Living east of Boganville? Madrigal Communications, 27 October 2011.
  33. ↑ Albion Park: home of the giant ugg boot? Illawarra Mercury, 5 September 2009.
  34. ↑ Grant, Lorrie (10 December 2003). "UGG boots a fashion kick". USA Today. Retrieved 17 November 2009.
  35. ↑ Julie Neigher (20 December 2009). "It looks like Ugg love". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
  36. 1 2 Plant, Simon (22 February 2007). "Shake your booty". Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia). p. W22.
  37. 1 2 Needham, Kirsty (13 March 2004). "Putting the boot in". The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, Australia). p. 33. Retrieved 17 November 2009.
  38. ↑ Sheepskin and Shearling Frequently asked Questions Shepherd's Flock
  39. ↑ "Animal Welfare FAQ". UGG Austraia. Retrieved 4 Feb 2016.
  40. ↑ Pledge Never to Wear UGGs! PETA 2015
  41. ↑ "Pamela Anderson Learns Ugg Boots Made From Sheepskin, Speaks Out Against Them". Fox News. 28 February 2007. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
  42. ↑ ""PAWS takes aim at Ugg boots". Daily Princetonian. 25 February 2008.
  43. 1 2 "United States District Court UGG Holdings, Inc. -v- Clifford Severen et al" (PDF). Deckers Outdoor Corporation. 23 February 2005. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
  44. ↑ "Verdict: Case number / Docket number: 74950 / HA ZA 08-2234" (in Dutch). Court Dordrecht. 24 December 2008
  45. ↑ Website of Walker Morris UK solicitors firm, Leeds. "Legal Briefing from the Trade Marks and Designs Group, 3 October 2011."
  46. ↑ "U.S. Serial No. 73492075". USPTO. June 27, 1984. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  47. ↑ Arnold, James (19 February 2004). "Aussie boot battle takes an Uggly turn". BBC News. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  48. ↑ "UGG Holdings, Inc. and Deckers Outdoor Corporation v. Paul Barclay d/b/a Australian Made Goods". National Arbitration Forum. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  49. ↑ "Previous cases". Nominet. Retrieved September 22, 2015.

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