The Ledger
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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.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
Smith: Half of Australians owned sheepskin boots while America had none
“Oh my god, you know, one in two Australians has some sort of sheepskin footwear, and there's none in America.”
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.”
UGG sold only 28 pairs of boots during its first year
“The total sales for the first year was 28 pairs.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
Smith: Stockbrokers flooded UGG's switchboard after Rush Limbaugh sponsorship announced
“Today we have a new sponsor, and it's Ugg Boots from California, and that second, our switchboard shut down, because every broker in the country, every stockbroker, was calling us saying, Are you guys public? Can we buy stock? Can we buy, you know, because the…”
Smith: Sheepskin footwear dries and warms wet feet within 15 minutes
“Sheepskin breathes, so you can put them on with freezing feet, and they will insulate, and if you've got wet feet, like after surfing, it wicks the moisture out towards the surface, and so within 10:15 minutes, your feet are dry and warm.”
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…”