U for

Ugg Boots 

  

Firstly, if you don’t know what they are allow me to explain.

Ugg boots are mid calf length boots made from sheepskin. The fleece is on the inside of the boot and the tanned skin is on the outside. The sole of the boot is usually made from rubber or some sort of synthetic substance.

They are known here as Ugg Boots, Uggies or Uggs

They first appeared commercially in the Australian market in the 1950’s but were around, some say, in the 1920’s.

Here, we predominantly wear our Uggies as slippers. You do see them out and about in shopping centres or movie theatres etc but as a rule they are for leisure and only a real bogun would wear them out.  

I have always found them uncomfortable to wear for long periods or for long distances and so my Uggies are used at home only. (not that I would even think of wearing them in public, well, maybe to the drive-in).

The boots can be seen in old photographs when World War 1 pilots posed alongside their planes. The they were called Fug Boots (The old timers say that they were called flying ugg boots then shortened to Fug, but who knows - my feeling is that F may have stood for another word which would have meant that they were really really ugly boots and so were called 'Fugly Boots' which was then shortened to Fug Boots).

The shearers wore them in the 1930's - 1950's then the surfers came along in the 1960's and made the Ugg Boot an Australian household name. 

There is an American company who patented the name Ugg in 2003 so they could piggyback onto a known product and sell their boots to the rest of the world (including Australia). It's a classic case of a big multinational company trying to smash local industries, especially if those local industries are selling to the wider world. But we are fighting them on the grounds that Ugg Boots are a generic name for sheepskin boots in Australia not a brand name & our boots are made here from Australian sheepskin and not in China. 

On the topic of sheepskin, the difference with Australian made Uggies is that they are made from sheep skin that is a by-product of processing sheep for human consumption - the sheep are not killed for their skins.

 These days they can get quite fancy and the hard soles mean that you can wear them almost anywhere and, I guess, with anything.

But the most important thing is that they are the best way to keep your tootsies warm on a cold winter's day.