Iconic Australian brand ‘UGG since 1974’ forced to change its name amid legal fight with American giant
Iconic Aussie brand UGG Since 1974 will be forced to change its name after a footwear giant in the United States launched legal action.
The brand will have to drop ‘UGG’ from the ‘UGG Since 1974’ name after Deckers Outdoor Corporation bought the rights from Australian entrepreneur Brian Smith.
Mr Smith registered the name in the US in the 1970s, around the same time the sheepskin products were launched by an Australian couple on the east coast.
Arthur and Faye Watts started handcrafting the sheepskin products in a small shed in a coastal town in New South Wales, where they quickly gained popularity.
Their grandson, Tod Watts, acquired UGG Since 1974 in the 1990s and now owns and operates the family business with his wife Hannah in the Gold Coast.
‘We’re being sued by Deckers Outdoor Corporation,’ Mr Watts said in a video shared to social media on Wednesday.
‘We’ve been proudly making Australian boots for over five decades and three generations. And we also own the trademark here in Australia and New Zealand where the boots originated – where ugg boots originated.
‘But the Deckers lawsuit has made it hard to share our story and our boots with everyone else within the world. It’s extremely hard to fight a lawsuit against a multi-billion dollar company, especially as a family-owned, Australian-made business.’
We’ve been proudly making Australian boots for over five decades and three generations,’ said UGG Since 1974 owner Todd Watts
Deckers sells the boots under the ‘UGG’ brand with the large ‘G’ in the middle (pictured)
Mr Watts said because of the lawsuit, they had decided to transition the brand to ‘SINCE 74’ for boots exported overseas.
It has argued in the past that Americans don’t use ‘ugg’ as a descriptive term, but only as a brand name
In Australia and New Zealand the brand would still be called UGG Since 1974.
‘We are the original and we will still be the original, no matter what our label says on the back of our boots,’ he said in the video.
Deckers sells the boots under the ‘ugg’ trademark in the US and sells the ‘UGG brand distinguished by a larger typeface ‘G’ in the middle..
Ugg boots were first invented in Australia around the early 1990s and has since become a popular shoe across the world.
