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The most divisive of footwear brands is making waves again. At emerging designer Tolu Coker’s catwalk show last Friday during London Fashion Week, models walked the runway in fluffy and snake-print knee-high Uggs.
Ugg built momentum last autumn at the SS24 presentations, supporting and collaborating with a host of emerging brands across the big four fashion cities, including Collina Strada (New York), Chopova Lowena and Ashley Williams (London), Wales Bonner (Paris) as well as Magliano at Pitti Uomo (Milan) in January this year. In October 2023, the brand launched a sell-out collaboration with skate brand Palace, featuring clogs with printed cartoon badges. Originally sold at £150, they’re now retailing for as much as £900 on StockX.
Ugg is part of an “ugly shoe” revival, alongside brands such as Birkenstock, Crocs and Timberland. These brands have collaborated with big-name designers such as Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton (Timberland) and Balenciaga (Crocs) to boost brand heat. Meanwhile, Ugg has preferred to focus on emerging talent specifically, seeking to usher in a new era for the label after a slump in the mid-2010s.
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“Emerging designers are often deeply connected to their art, craft and community in a powerful way,” says Carole Diarra, Ugg global vice president of marketing. “We tap into those multi-hyphenated visionaries who are making their mark on the world today through fashion, art, music and sustainability. Our icons make a perfect canvas for their creativity and allow us to stay connected to the cultural zeitgeist.”
Emerging fashion talents, often struggling with cash flow issues, appreciate the backing. Ugg in return receives fashion industry credibility, as well as creative inspiration. “There’s something about the energy of fashion now, and particularly partnering with young creatives who share our values,” says Anne Spangenberg, president of fashion and lifestyle at Ugg parent company Deckers. “We like to give back to designers right now. We’re learning. We’re supporting, we’re collaborating and we’re giving and receiving from them at the same time.”
A brand reboot
The Ugg team is aiming to redefine the label for a new generation. As part of a turnaround strategy, Ugg has collaborated with emerging designers, reimagined its classics in fresh styles and created headline-grabbing campaigns.
The brand was launched back in 1978 in California by Australian surfer Brian Smith. Like many of the now-popular “ugly shoe” labels, the brand enjoyed a moment in the sun in the 2000s, typically paired with Juicy Couture tracksuits worn by Y2K style icons such as Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan. Ugg responded to elevated demand with knitted styles and new colourways, saturating the market.
For a while, Ugg parent company Deckers was on a roll. The group reported record revenues frequently from 2010 to 2014. Then-CEO Angel Martinez told CNBC that Ugg wouldn’t be a “fad brand”. But in 2015, the tide began to turn. Deckers’s revenues fell below expectations. Analysts lowered their guidance on Deckers in 2016 amid heavy discounting, and in the same year, Martinez retired with exec Dave Powers taking the helm. (Powers himself announced his retirement earlier this month, although he will remain on the board of directors.)
Under Powers, Ugg leaned into fashion to regain some of its cool. High-profile collaborations included buzzy label Y/Project (2018), Eckhaus Latta and Heron Preston (2019), followed by Telfar, Molly Goddard and Feng Chen Wang (2021). As the pandemic set in, Ugg doubled down on fashion collaborations. Soon, Vogue pronounced Ugg as footwear’s new comeback kid.
A key moment arrived in 2022: Bella Hadid stepped out in New York wearing a pair of white men’s briefs, a puffer jacket, white socks and Ugg’s Ultra Mini Platform Boots. The image went viral and the boot sold out across the US. For Q3 2024, Deckers sales grew 16 per cent to a record $1.56 billion, according to the company.
Rethinking brand icons
Typically, brand collaborations amount to little more than a change in colourways, the application of print or a mash-up of logos. Ugg, however, encourages its collaborators to aggressively reinterpret its classic styles, sometimes to unrecognisable proportions. Ugg’s Collina Strada collaboration, which debuted on the SS24 runway in September and will be released in April, is an adventurous take on the traditional Ugg form, featuring pastel Mary Janes alongside clogs with spikes and laces. “I was a little shocked by it at first,” Spangenberg says. “I was like what is that? Which is a great sign that it’s gonna be fantastic and it’s exactly on trend.”
The catwalk show serves as a “high-energy” moment of undivided attention around a collaboration, she notes — backed up by advertising. The Elder Statesman collab campaign, released in October 2023, featured actor Seth Rogen in a workshop with a multi-coloured knitted creature. The Palace campaign last autumn depicted Palace skaters, including star Lucien Clarke, in a cosy, sepia-toned shoot wearing Ugg’s Tasman slippers and gloves.
For each designer, Ugg’s offerings evoke different memories and associations. “We’ve got a generation of creatives and consumers who were inspired by [the] 2000s, and some who are just discovering us,” Spangenberg says. “We love to keep iterating on our products. So the Mini became the Ultra Mini. And the Ultra Mini had a platform. We call those icons reimagined, and it’s so much fun to see the evolution.”
Ugg responds to consumer feedback, too. Spangenberg recalls a visit to the Ugg Feel House pop-up in New York last year, where customers could visit and shop in a multi-sensory space in Brooklyn. Shoppers complained about the heavy winter weather, prompting Ugg to launch Ugg Xtreme, including hiking boots and waterproof covers for its footwear. “We all dress really differently than we used to. If you think about this interview and what I have on my feet, I’m very serious on top right now,” says Spangenberg. “But I’ve got a pair of super-fun Valentine’s Uggs on [complete with cartoon hearts and rainbows]. It’s good to have fun with the product.”
There are more collaborations to come. “A fashion partnership can be a success for us on so many levels, and each partnership comes with its own unique purpose and goals,” Diarra says. “That said, the key indicator of success with all our partnerships is how authentically and creatively we can engage with the partner and our shared consumers.”
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