UGG Australia
150px | |
Industry | Retail |
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Founded | 1978 |
Founder | Brian Smith |
Headquarters | Goleta, California, U.S. |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Products | Footwear, accessories |
Revenue | $1.8 billion[1] |
Parent | Deckers Outdoor Corporation |
Website | www |
UGG Australia (or simply UGG) is an American footwear company and is a division of the Deckers Outdoor Corporation.
UGG is a registered trademark in the United States and over 130 other countries for footwear, as well as bags, clothing, outerwear, home goods and other products. Deckers is headquartered in Goleta, California[2] with an e-commerce division located in Flagstaff, Arizona.[3]
The UGG brand is best known for its "Classic" sheepskin boots which originated with the traditional Australian ugg boot style, worn by both men and women.[4] UGG brand boots have been identified as a fashion trend for men and women since the early 2000s.[5][6] The range has expanded to include various styles of footwear, including leather, canvas and other materials, handbags, clothing, outerwear, hats, gloves, home products such as blankets and pillows, and other goods. Deckers has reported sales of US$689 million under the UGG brand in 2008,[7] an increase from US$14.5 million in 1995.[8] The company’s profits have consistently increased over the years, with sales exceeding $1 billion consecutively since 2011.[2][9]
Contents
History
UGG Australia was originally founded in California in 1978[10] by Australian surfer Brian Smith, then living in Santa Monica, California after studying at UCLA's Anderson School of Management,[11] and Doug Jensen. Smith and Jensen first applied to be the United States distributors for the Western Australian sheepskin boot manufacturer, Country Leather. Smith, unhappy with the brand, trademarked UGG.[4] Later, family friends invested $20,000 into the venture and the group set up Ugg Imports. In their first season in business, Ugg Imports sold 28 pairs of boots. Due to other business commitments, in 1979 Jensen handed over his share of the company to Smith. Sales steadily grew and Smith set up Ugg Holdings Inc. and in 1985 registered a US trademark on a rams head logo with the words "Original UGG Boot UGG Australia".[12] By 1994, 80 percent of UGG's sales were in southern Orange County, but the company gained international attention after the boots were worn by the U.S. Olympic team in Lillehammer for the 1994 Winter Olympics.[11]
In 1995, Deckers Outdoor Corporation, acquired Smith's business for $14.6 million and continued to expand it.[13] During the late 1990s, UGG began experiencing double-digit sales growth as Deckers developed the company into an international brand. In 2003, UGG Australia boots were included on Oprah Winfrey's show as part of "Oprah’s Favorite Things."[14] Afterwards, the brand received an unprecedented surge in sales.[14][15] In 2006, UGG opened its first brick and mortar store in New York's SoHo neighborhood.[16] The company opened its first international store in Japan later that same year.[17]
UGG Australia partnered with designer shoe brand Jimmy Choo in 2009 to launch a capsule collection combining the brands' styles.[18] The following year, UGG debuted a collection of boots designed in collaboration with Swarovski. The company launched its first men's advertising campaign in 2011 featuring New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2011.[19] The first UGG for Men stand-alone store opened in New York in 2012.[20] UGG reported over $1 billion (U.S) in sales for 2012.[2] UGG products are manufactured in a number of countries, primarily China.[21] Deckers continues to source most of its sheepskin from Australia.[22][23] Its collection of home goods launched in 2013 and included products such as rugs, blankets, pillows and other home pieces.[24] In June 2015, Ugg has announced a collaboration with Pixar studio. The lifestyle brand launched a capsule collection reflecting Pixar’s newest film “Inside Out.” [25]
In popular culture
UGG Australia boots have been a style staple since they first appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show in her second edition of "Oprah's Favorite Things" in 2003,[15] in which she purchased over 350 shoes for her staff and audience.[26] The boots gained a large celebrity following and were frequently seen on notable people such as Kate Upton, Blake Lively,[27] Kate Hudson, Cameron Diaz, and Sarah Jessica Parker[15] who also wore them on the HBO series "Sex and the City" as Carrie Bradshaw.[28]
In 2013, various Vogue editors wrote about wearing an owning UGG boots following testimonials by fashion figures such as Alexa Chung and André Leon Talley who posted about their UGGs.[27][29]
The shoes have also been spotted on celebrities including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.[30]
Trademark disputes
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In 1971, Shane Steadman registered the trademark UGH-BOOT on the Australian Trade Mark Registry, and obtained an Australian registration for UGH in 1982. These registrations remained valid in Australia until removed for non-use in 2006. Steadman sold his UGH brand boots widely in Australia throughout the 1970s and 1980s.[31][32] This registration was subsequently sold to Ugg Holdings Inc. in early 1995. In August 1995, Deckers Outdoor Corporation purchased Ugg Holdings, and in 1999 registered Ugg Holdings trademarks, including the UGG AUSTRALIA label (with sun-like device), in Australia. Deckers holds registrations for the UGG trademark in the United States, China and over 130 other countries.[33]
The validity of the UGG trademark outside of Australia has also been challenged, but courts have consistently upheld its validity. In 2004, Deckers filed a case against Koolaburra in the California federal court asserting that their use of "Ug" was trademark infringement.[34][13] Koolaburra argued that the UGG trademark was invalid as being generic and obtained by fraud.[34] In February 2005, the court ruled for Deckers stating that survey evidence clearly demonstrates that the UGG mark is not generic. There was no evidence that Smith acted with an intent to defraud the Trademark Office, and consumers would likely be confused with the similarity in "appearance, sight and sound" between "Ug" and "UGG" as the parties were marketing in direct competition with identical products. However, the court declined to rule on the validity of Deckers' Australian trademark registrations in the context of the U.S. case.[34]
Other UGG trademark disputes have occurred with companies including Luda Production Pty[35][36] and Emu Australia,[37][38][39] as well as local manufacturers in countries such as Turkey and China.[33][33]
Counterfeiting
With increasing popularity, Deckers' UGG products became a popular target for counterfeiters as they are inexpensive to make, have a relatively high sale price and are rarely discounted. According to Deckers' brand-protection unit, in 2009 it took down 2,500 fake websites, 20,000 eBay listings and 150,000 other online auction listings with 60,000 pairs of counterfeit UGG footwear confiscated by customs agents.[40]
Law enforcement officials in Great Britain, the U.S. and China have reported seizures of counterfeit UGG brand boots.[41][42][43] In 2009, US customs agents confiscated 60,000 pairs of fake UGG boots, and the company took action against 2500 websites that were selling fraudulent products, as well as some 170,000 listings on eBay, Craigslist and similar sites.[44][45]
The National Arbitration Forum, which has been appointed by ICANN to resolve most Internet domain name disputes, has used Deckers Outdoor Corporation ownership of the UGG trademark in the United States as part of several decisions to direct Internet domains containing UGG to be transferred to Deckers.[46][47][48][49][50][51]
Concern for animals
Since UGG boots are one of many clothing products made from animal skin, the production of UGG boots has been the subject of criticism by the animal liberation movement.[52] In the decade beginning in 2000, the group[who?] 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 sheepskin, wrote on her website that she does not support the brand any longer.[53] In February 2008, the Princeton Animal Welfare Society staged a campus protest against the fur industry, particularly attacking the ugg boot industry. "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?' "[54]
See also
References
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External links
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- Official website
- The Good, The Bad and the Ugg Boot Study
- The Good, The Bad and the Ugg Boot 2006 documentary film on the trademark dispute (see also Australian Film Commission database)
- "Putting the Boot In", Sydney Morning Herald, March 13, 2004
- Direction to remove 245662 (UGH-BOOTS) from the Register of Trade Marks. Trademarks Act 1995: Decision of a Delegate of the Registrar of Trademarks with Reasons: Findings of Australian Trademark Hearing. January 16, 2006. (PDF file)
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- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Higgins, Pamm (October 2001). "Booty Call". Los Angeles Magazine 46 (10): 75.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Behind the Brand: The Golden Fleece Wall Street Journal September 9, 2010.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ He, Xin. "Material Prices Can't Keep Deckers Down Forever" Seeking Alpha, April 20, 2012. Accessed March 1, 2013. Quote: "UGG only manufactures sheepskin from certain regions in Australia and the supply of Australian sheepskin is limited due to a high wool price."
- ↑ Kelly, Brad. "DECKERS OUTDOOR CORP. Goleta, California; Dismissed As A Fad, Uggs Sheepskin Boots Have Staying Power." Investors Business Daily, March 16, 2007. Accessed March 1, 2013.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 Website of Walker Morris UK solicitors firm, Leeds. "Bootiful - UGG recognised as a well known mark in Turkey" Legal Briefing from the Trade Marks and Designs Group, 3 October 2011.
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Cronin, Emily. "The story of Ugg". The Daily Telegraph. January 30, 2011.
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- ↑ Clifford, Stephanie. "Economic Indicator: Even Cheaper Knockoffs." The New York Times, July 31, 2010.
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- ↑ The Truth About Ugg Boots: History, Controversy & Who Wears Them Whygo Australia August 5, 2010
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- 1990s fashion
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