UGG Women's Fashion Brand

UGG is an American footwear company and a division of Deckers Brands. The UGG name is a registered trademark in the United States and in more than 130 other countries, covering footwear and also bags, clothing, outerwear, home goods and other products. Deckers is headquartered in Goleta, California, and its e-commerce division is located in Flagstaff, Arizona - the two addresses that anchor the company's record.

For women's shoppers, UGG is first of all a footwear brand: the sheepskin boot is the product the name stands for, a name built on shoes, booties and boots. Around that core, the trademark's own product list shows how far the line reaches - bags, clothing, outerwear and home goods all sit under the same mark - so a researcher checking a women's UGG product beyond boots is still inside the brand this page profiles, not outside it.

Oprah, Jimmy Choo and Swarovski: The Milestones

In 2003, UGG boots were included on Oprah Winfrey's show as part of Oprah's Favorite Things, - the endorsement moment, and the point from which the boot's American fame is usually dated. Six years later the brand moved in a second direction as well: UGG partnered with the designer shoe brand Jimmy Choo in 2009 to launch a capsule collection combining the two brands' styles, and the following year UGG debuted a collection of boots designed in collaboration with Swarovski. Comfort footwear, a television endorsement and two luxury collaborations - that is the milestone sequence.

Those collaborations matter to a buyer for a practical reason: they explain why the women's range runs from plain working sheepskin boots to embellished, fashion-led editions under one name. When a listing describes a studded or crystal-finished UGG boot, it is describing the Jimmy Choo and Swarovski chapter of the brand's history, not a different brand - a distinction worth having when comparing pairs across sellers and seasons.

One Word, Two Meanings: The Trademark Story

UGG's longest story is its trademark history, and it begins with a spelling difference. UGG boots - sometimes called UGGs - in Australia and New Zealand are a unisex style of sheepskin boot; in many other countries, UGG boots are a well-known brand of footwear owned by Deckers. In 1971, Shane Steadman registered the trademark UGH-BOOT on the Australian Trade Mark Registry. That registration was subsequently sold to UGG Holdings Inc. in early 1995, and in August 1995 Deckers Brands purchased UGG Holdings. In 1999 Deckers registered the UGG Holdings trademarks, including the UGG AUSTRALIA label, in Australia.

The Australian chapter did not end there. Deckers' attempts to stop other traders using the UGG mark in Australia led to a decision by IP Australia that UGG is a generic term in Australia and New Zealand, to which Deckers did not have trademark rights. Nevertheless, Deckers holds registrations for the UGG trademark in the United States, China and over 130 other countries. An Apparel Search blog post covers that trademark complexity, and the UGG Australia profile and UGG Boot Colors guide are linked from this page, so the full record stays one click away.

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