Ugg boots—whether you have ’em or not, every pair comes with an opinion.
Stylish? Hideous? Uggs continue to divide the world over—and have since the early 2000s. Last year, the Huffington Post wrote an article about why Uggs won’t EVER go away (they have become “the winter flip-flop”), while staffers at Vogue fondly reminisced about being pre-teens on a waiting list for their first pair. (Kate Moss had them, okay?)
Why are we telling you this? Long before Ugg boots were sensationalized by the unstoppable power of teenage girls—long may they reign—they came from a land Down Under.
Uggs Were Already “Thing” in the ’70s
Well, not Uggs specifically—the brand itself was invented by an Australian fella named Brian Smith around 1978. Long before that, sheepskin boots had been a staple of Australian surf culture. Comfy and easy to slip on and off, surfer bros and babes in Byron Bay were into it. (Funnily enough, they were most popular with guys first! Get over it dude.)
Smith graduated as a Chartered Accountant in Aus, but he quit that game and headed to Southern California where all the “next big things” were happening. When he realized that there was virtually no sheepskin footwear in America, he thought he’d immediately struck it rich. (Spoiler alert: eventually, yeah.)
The brand picked up traction in the Southern California surf community, but getting the rest of the world on board (heh) wasn’t so simple. How did Uggs break into the market and make it big?
You Love Uggs Because of Hockey Moms and Oprah
According to Smith, the boots were first popular in certain regions and with certain activities” “surfing on the coast, skiiing in the Rockies and ‘hockey Mom’s”‘ in the Northeast.”
He continued to build the brand out through the ’80s and ’90s, offering free pairs to celebrity stylists. Then came the boom. Oprah gave pairs to her entire studio audience during her “Favorite Things” show in 2000, and they continued to explode from there. Soon after, celebs like Beyoncé were spotted wearing them.
Read this back to yourself: a bunch of moms in Massachusetts and Oprah Winfrey—long may SHE reign—were onto Uggs before Beyonce.
Next time your mom tells you something is cool, listen to her.
…And Baywatch?
Another huge boost for the brand was when Pamela Anderson wore Uggs as lifeguarding babe C.J. Parker on the hit show Baywatch. Please go ahead and imagine one of their iconic slow-motion rescue sequences with the addition of your gosh darn comfy winter boots. We’ll wait.
Anderson, who is now a vegan and PETA activist, says she regrets sporting them on the show and leading to their further popularity. However, this anti-endorsement hasn’t stopped the brand from continuing to be huge, adding new designs and colours, expanding world wide.
Love them or hate them, Ugg boots are here to stay. From the golden surfing sands of Oz to Oprah’s closet to New York Fashion Week, there doesn’t seem to be a place they can’t belong. Haters, get on board.
