A machinist at Uggs-N-Rugs, an Australian sheepskin workshop, sews the innersole into an ugg boot; the record does not name her. Photo Gnangarra, CC BY 2.5 AU, via Wikimedia Commons.
Ugg boots
What it took directly
- documentedBrian Smith's UGG brand in California took from Country Leather's sheepskin boots from Western Australia, found in a surf-magazine advert"From California, Smith phoned the company whose advertisement he had seen in Surfer magazine – Country Leather, in Western Australia – and managed to secure an exclusive deal to sell their products in the US." Marisa Meltzer, The Guardian (2016), retelling Brian Smith's account
- documentedThe UGG trademark in the US took from "ugg", already Australia's everyday word for a sheepskin boot"Ugg was a generic term for sheepskin boot, an endearing nod to their unlovely style. There was an UGH brand of sheepskin boots in Australia, but no such thing in the US, so Smith registered the UGG trademark in his adopted country." Marisa Meltzer, The Guardian (2016)
- statedShane Stedman's sheepskin boots took from the cold of the Australian winter surf"The sea is bloody cold in the Aussie winter ... I used to wear football jerseys to keep them (feet) warm" Shane Stedman, surfer, quoted by News.com.au (2011) from the Daily Mail, which calls him the boot's inventor
What it learned to do
- statedThe ugg boot learned from surfers warming their feet after a session"They were super-practical. When you put them on after surfing, within 10 minutes your feet would be dry and warm" Brian Smith, who surfed Broulee Beach as a teenager, to The Guardian (2016)
- inferredToday's UGG Classic comes from the plain pull-on boots Smith first imported from Western Australia"The Ugg boot launched in California in the 1980s is virtually identical in design to the boot sold today." inferred — Meltzer reports that Smith's first stock came from Country Leather and that the boot launched in the 1980s is virtually identical to today's; whose pattern that refined 1980s boot followed, the article does not say
The tradition it sits in
- documentedThe ugg boot comes from the cheap sheepskin boots of New South Wales surf towns"by the time Smith was a teenager surfing in Broulee Beach on the south coast of New South Wales, sheepskin boots were common enough that one could buy them for $12 in petrol stations." Marisa Meltzer, The Guardian (2016)
- documentedThe ugg boot comes from family workshops like the Iversens' Blue Mountain Ugg Boots in Faulconbridge, New South Wales"In Faulconbridge, in New South Wales, Brian Iversen, whose family have run Blue Mountain Ugg Boots since 1933" Julia Llewellyn Smith, The Daily Telegraph (2004)
- documentedThe ugg boot comes from the Mortel family's sheepskin firm in the Hunter Valley"Tony Mortel, whose family firm in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, has been making the boots since 1958." Julia Llewellyn Smith, The Daily Telegraph (2004)
- documentedThe word "ugg boot" comes from everyday Australian English, as its dictionaries record it"The Macquarie Dictionary (1981) defines the term ug boot as being a fleecy lined boot with an untanned upper." Ian Thompson, delegate of the Registrar of Trade Marks, IP Australia decision of 16 January 2006, citing evidence filed by Bruce and Bronwyn McDougall
Where the whole form comes from
- documentedThe ugg boot comes from sheepskin boots first made in the Blue Mountains against the New South Wales winter"Traditional Australian uggs were first made in the Blue Mountains in the 1930s to protect against the cold of winter in New South Wales." Julian Lorkin, BBC News (2017)
- documentedThe ugg boot comes from farmers wrapping sheepskin round their feet at shearing time, by one hedged account"According to some sources, they were originally invented by farmers, who wrapped sheepskin round their feet to keep them warm during shearing." Julia Llewellyn Smith, The Daily Telegraph (2004), attributing it to "some sources"
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