Iconic Australian brand UGG Since 1974 will be forced to change its name after a US footwear giant took legal action.
The brand will have to drop ‘UGG’ from the ‘UGG Since 1974’ name after Deckers Outdoor Corporation bought the rights from Australian businessman Brian Smith.
Smith registered the name in the United States in the 1970s, around the same time an Australian couple was launching sheepskin products on the East Coast.
Arthur and Faye Watts began making sheepskin products by hand in a small shed in a coastal town in New South Wales, where they quickly gained popularity.
His grandson, Tod Watts, acquired UGG Since 1974 in the 1990s and now owns and operates the family business with his wife Hannah on the Gold Coast.
“We are being sued by Deckers Outdoor Corporation,” Watts said in a video shared on social media 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 the ugg boots originated.
‘But the Deckers lawsuit has made it difficult to share our story and our boots with everyone else in the world. It is extremely difficult to bring a claim against a multi-million dollar company, especially if it is an Australian family business.’
“We have 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 big ‘G’ in the middle (pictured)
Watts said that due to demand, they had decided to transition the brand to ‘SINCE 74’ for boots exported overseas.
It has been argued in the past that Americans do not 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 originals and we will remain the originals, no matter what our label on the back of our boots says,” he said in the video.
Deckers sells the boots under the ‘ugg’ brand in the US and sells the ‘UGG’ brand which is distinguished by a larger ‘G’ font in the middle.
Ugg boots were first invented in Australia in the early 1990s and have since become popular footwear around the world.