The terms ugg boots, ugh boots and ug boots are believed to have been used to describe sheepskin boots in Australia and New Zealand since the late 1950s. Some accounts have suggested that the term grew out of earlier variations, such as the "fug boots" worn by pilots during World War I.ugg canada The 1970s saw the emergence of advertising using the terms, and 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. (After Stedman complained to the editors of Macquarie, a trademark notation was added to subsequent editions indicating that "UGH" was a trade mark).In the 1960s, ugg boots became popular among competitive surfers.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.Sheepskin footwear accounts for around 10% of footwear production in Australia.
Being one of many clothing products made from animal skin, the production of ugg boots has been the subject of criticism by the animal rights movement. In the decade beginning in 2000, the group called for the boycott of ugg boots and their replacement with alternatives not made from animal skin. In 2007, Pamela Anderson, realizing that ugg boots were made of skin, wrote on her website: "I thought they were shaved kindly? People like to tell me all the time that I started that trend – yikes! Well let's start a new one – do NOT buy Uggs! Buy Stella McCartney or juicy boots."In February 2008, the Princeton Animal Welfare Society staged a campus protest against the fur industry, particularly attacking the ugg boot industry.ugg adirondack canada "Students lay in the newly fallen snow on the Frist Campus Center's North Front Lawn on Friday afternoon, feigning death, wearing coats covered with fake blood and sporting signs that read, 'What if you were killed for your coat?' However, similar to the sourcing of leather, sheep-skin is a by-product of processing sheep for human consumption; sheep are not 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 boots has been the "driving force" in recent shortages, which have seen sheep-skin prices from 2010 to 2012 increase by up to 80%. In 2009 an American podiatrist raised concern that the regular wearing of ugg boots could be deleterious to foot health due to the lack of arch support. Generally worn for warmth and comfort, Australian ugg boots had never been considered fashionable in their country of origin. But the Deckers UGG brand emerged as a fashion trend in the US through Deckers' actions to promote it as a high fashion brand. Deckers solicited endorsements from celebrities such as Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker,Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lopez,and product placements in television series such as Sex and the City, and films such as Raising Helen.
This marketing campaign "led to an exponential growth in the brand's popularity and recognizability."Oprah Winfrey received a free pair when her endorsement was sought by Deckers; she then bought 350 pairs for her entire production staff, and eventually featured UGG brand boots as one of her "Favorite Things" on her TV talk show in 2000. Other actresses who discovered UGG brand boots through surf shops began wearing them.The company reported US$689 million in UGG sales in 2008, almost a 50-fold increase from 1995; By way of contrast, ugg boots in Australia were worn predominantly as slippers and associated with "daggy fashion sense, bogan behaviour" and the "outer suburbs" when worn in public.ugg classic 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.'Ugg boots are made from sheepskins with fleece attached. They are as Australian as Rolf Harris, although until a few years ago ugg boots were regarded as dowdy and worn only in the privacy of people's homes. Then celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow became fans, sales rocketed, and an Australian cottage industry found itself in conflict with the hard-nosed world of international fashion.
For decades, local traders used the name "ugg" to describe their product, which - legend has it - dates back to the days when shearers wrapped sheepskin around their feet to keep warm. Surfers, too, recognised their merits, pulling on the boots when they emerged from the surf. Then in 2004, at the height of the ugg-boot craze, Australian manufacturers - most of them small outfits with a handful of workers - received letters from an American conglomerate, Deckers Outdoor Corporation, instructing them to stop using the name or face litigation.UGG Sheepskin 1875 Deckers, it emerged, had bought the trademark, and it did not want competition, not even from the likes of Westhaven Industries, a disabled services charity that employs 65 people at its factory in New South Wales. As disbelief turned to defiance, local companies banded together to fight the legal challenge. It was a David and Goliath battle that, in a world buffeted by the chill winds of globalisation, they seemed certain to lose.
But some stories have a happy ending, which is why Bronwyn and Bruce McDougall, owners of Perth-based Uggs-n-Rugs, are pinching themselves with delight today. The McDougalls had appealed to the organisation that regulates trademarks in Australia, claiming that ugg - originally an abbreviation of ugly, so it is believed - was a generic term. Yesterday they received the news that the regulator, IP Australia, agreed. The name is to be removed from the register of trademarks. Local manufacturers can once again call their boots uggs. Mrs McDougall said she and her husband were thrilled. "This is a moral victory for all Australians," she said. There was elation, too, in the town of Maitland, 100 miles north of Sydney, where the Mortel family has been producing ugg boots for nearly 50 years. Frank Mortel, now 73, set up a tiny sheepskin factory after emigrating from Holland in 1958, bringing with him a few sewing machines. Descended from six generations of orthopaedic boot makers, he made his first pair of fur-lined slippers for his wife, Rita, who had complained of cold feet.
