are uggs made in china?

Looking for shirts, pants, socks, underwear, jackets and outerwear, swimwear, hats, shoes, or any other piece of clothing not made in China? Post your request here.
josie

are uggs made in china?

Post by josie »

have always assumed they were made in australia. after reading this site i have no idea what to believe anymore.
steve
Site Admin
Posts: 97
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:43 pm

Re: are uggs made in china?

Post by steve »

Thanks for the question. I dug into it and discovered a lot of things I didn't know about UGGs.

For example, did you know that before UGG (all caps) became a brand name, the term "ugg" (lowercase) was used for years to describe the style of sheepskin boots that started in Australia? "ugg boots" were invented in Australia and worn by surfers in the 1960s, spreading to the United States and Great Britain in the 1970s and becoming a fashion trend in the late 1990s.

The company known as UGG was founded in 1978 by Australian surfers Brian Smith and Doug Jensen. They started out by selling Australian boots, but decided to create their company called UGG (all caps). Most of their sales were in California, but the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer gave them exposure around the world, and 2003, Oprah helped them really take off by including them as one of her "favorite things".

In move that was either sleazy big corporate BS or smart business, depending on how you look at it, UGG sued to stop people from selling shoes using the term "ugg". They won in the US, but they lost in Australia. This is why you see marketing in the US only for UGGs, but in Australia you can still find "uggs" (ugh).

I fall into the camp of seeing UGG's legal nonsense as sleazy for one reason. UGG (all caps) boots are unfortunately pretty much all made in China these days.

But there are plenty of small businesses in Australia who make "ugg" boots using Australian workers and Australian sheep whom UGG has essentially blocked out of the world's largest marketplace so that they can China are the only beneficiaries. The irony, of course, is that UGG is the one that co-opted the generic term "ugg". Now that they've become the most popular creators of that style of footwear, they're stopping others from using the term they stole.

I'm glad to see that some Australian companies are fighting back with ugg boots that are more authentic ugg boots than UGG boots. I believe the way that trademark law works, they're allowed to maintain their own Web sites in Australia, and if you seek them out and find them in Australia, they can sell you products. But they just aren't allowed to market to the US. But I can certainly share some Australian web sites with them (I'm not being paid for this, I'm just providing this as a service because it should be an insult to Australians everywhere that UGGs have the appearance of being Australian, but Australia is not benefitting at all from their national treasure.


https://wildwoolaustralia.com/
https://www.emuaustralia.com/us/womens/australian-made
https://koalabi.com/
https://www.uggsince1974.com.au/
https://www.uggbootsmadeinaustralia.com.au/
https://uggaustralia.com.au/
https://originaluggboots.com.au/

On Amazon, I could only find one brand that was made completely in Australia (you'll find lots of boots that are "genuine Australian", but that's because the wool comes from Australia, while everything else is done in China).

https://amzn.to/3itVA2u

Hope it helps!
Post Reply