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Brian Smith

24 statements across 1 episodes · 6 bullish · 7 bearish · 2 people on the record · first statement Jun 1, 2026 by Brian Smith · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Brian Smith's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Everything said about Brian Smith, oldest first

Jun 1, 2026 negative
Assertion Supported
UGG sold only 28 pairs of boots during its first year
“The total sales for the first year was 28 pairs.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 14:25 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A $200,000 life insurance settlement enabled Brian Smith to buy back UGG
“We ended up getting 200,000 dollars as a settlement to walk away... And so I signed a promissory note with her, and this 200,000 dollars was enough to pay her note out, And then by, you know, I owned the company 100% again.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 59:45 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smith: UGG received 2,000 to 3,000 weekly boot orders in 1988
“Black and charcoal were just kicking butt with all of their orders. And we were, you know, getting two or 3000 pairs of orders a week.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 55:20 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 negative
Insight
Growing sales without working capital leaves a fast-growing business twice as broke
“The more sales you get, the bigger your problems get in, in supply. I never really understood that. I, my accounting thinking was, we just sold a million dollars worth of product, we're broke. What's the answer? Oh, we'll sell two million next year and think w…”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 33:32 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Disclosure
Brian Smith: UGG raised $20,000 in seed capital without a business plan
“We were able to raise 20,000 dollars from them as capital, and we didn't even have a business plan.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 12:17 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Disclosure
Smith: Originally came to California seeking products to export to Australia
“Yeah, and I was really literally on a search for something to take back to Australia. I had no desire to stay and live in America.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 6:47 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Assertion Supported
UGG co-owner died of a heart attack right before restoring Smith's equity
“Between the time he called me to get my stock, and that was the very next Sunday, he had a heart attack in this race and never recovered. And so, now his widow, who'd never stepped forward, Foot inside the Ugg business, now owned 100% of Ugg.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 52:43 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
UGG's initial pitch to California shoe stores received zero orders
“He came back with about a 150 business cards of all these retailers, and not a single order, and said, Brian, they tell us we're crazy trying to sell sheepskin in California.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 10:35 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Disclosure
Brian Smith pooled $500 to secure US distribution for sheepskin boots
“We pulled 500 bucks together and called the guy who ran the advertisement, and we talked him into being distributors for the U.S.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 9:52 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Disclosure
Brian Smith: Left Australian accounting career to surf Malibu for a year
“It was only a matter of weeks before I arrived in, in Los Angeles, and I had my surfboard, so I just started going up to Malibu. I surfed that place for nearly a year.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 3:23 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 negative
Opinion
Brian Smith: Low margins were UGG's biggest 20-year struggle
“That was one of the worst facets of the entire UGG project for 20 years, was the lack of margins I had because the pressure of the retail price kept us way, way down, so it was very hard to make money.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 14:50 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Brian Smith: Lack of Prior Use Enabled US Trademark Registration for UGG
“And I did a search of the world, especially the US, to see if there'd been any prior use of the trade name Ugg, and they had not. So, That opened up the gate for me to do the registration of the trademark.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 20:21 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 negative
What-if
Publicizing Oprah's endorsement early would have bankrupted UGG due to insufficient capital
“If we had announced that Oprah was wearing our shoes or boots, it would have killed the company when I owned the company, because I didn't have the capital to build the product to take on that demand.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 1:23:12 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Insight
Selling sheepskin boots to surf shops only worked on cold, stormy days
“I learned early on that trying to walk into a surf shop with sheepskin boots on a hot day was like pointless. So I learned to wait for a really shitty day when, you know, the storm would hit, you know, then I'd go on the road and sales were, you know, I would …”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 24:53 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Assertion Supported
Smith: UGG purchased its suing competitor UGHS and ran its factory
“We ended up doing a deal where we purchased the UGHS company, and we maintained that factory for a couple of years.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 1:05:39 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Brian Smith Took No Money From UGG Until Year Five or Six
“I think that was the fifth or sixth year. That was the first money I'd ever taken out of the company.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 46:41 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Disclosure
UGG gifted free boots to 400 Hollywood stylists to secure celebrity placement
“I found a mailing list of stylists in Hollywood and sent a letter to them, and about 400 people responded, and so I sent them all a pair of Ugg boots, you know, no questions asked, and it was a couple of months before I started seeing them on Celebrities”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 1:09:01 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Guy Raz: UGG reached its first annual profit of $140,000 in 1989
“By the end of that year, for the first time ever, UGG turns a profit, 140,000 dollars, which is great news.”
Guy Raz Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 1:01:01 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smith: Ski market was harder to penetrate than surf for early UGG boots
“The ski market was even harder than the surf market. Because their attitude was, well, we have mud, and we have slush, and we need rubber, you know, we gotta have Sorrells, and they couldn't see sheepskin being strong enough or waterproof enough to work in the…”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 22:50 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 bullish
Opinion
Gifting store managers free boots was UGG's most successful early marketing plan
“That cost me a pair of boots for each new store I opened, but that changed the trajectory of Ugg forever, and it was probably the best marketing plan I ever executed on.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 48:25 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 positive
Insight
Brian Smith: Having Retail Buyers Try Boots On Closed UGG's First Orders
“By being out there with the customers, it was so much easier for me to, you know, get a rapport going and introduce the product by having them try the boots on. Now, that turned out to be the biggest factor in closing our first orders was having the buyer try …”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 47:04 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 negative
Disclosure
Smith: UGG's board outvoted him to approve Rush Limbaugh ad campaign
“You know, we'd spent years building up this image of casual comfort and fashion and everything, and so I really fought it, but I was outvoted at a board meeting.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 1:11:59 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 positive
Assertion Supported
UGG sales quadrupled after swapping fashion models for authentic young surfers
“So when I ran those ads, the sales, which had been around, you know, 30 to 50,000 per year, the immediate jump was like 200,000 dollars.”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 29:36 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
Jun 1, 2026 negative
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Smith: Contract gave away full UGG ownership until trademark dispute resolved
“No, you don't get your stock issued until you finish the trademark. And I just hung the phone up, and I drove from Huntington Beach straight back to San Diego, and I pulled out my contract, and I read it, and I reread it, and I just went, oh, shit. I don't own…”
Brian Smith Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 45:30 UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.
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