Australian-Owned Ugg Since 1974 Changes Name Amid Ongoing Legal Battle with Deckers

An Australian-owned footwear company is changing its name amid a lawsuit with Deckers Brands and its Ugg label.

According to a TikTok posted by Ugg Since 1974 owner Todd Watts, the ongoing lawsuit with Deckers, which owns the Ugg trademark and brand,  has “made it hard” to share the company’s story and boots with everyone in the world.

Watts, who is the grandson of founders Arthur and Faye Springthorpe, said it was “extremely hard to fight a lawsuit against a multi-billion-dollar company, especially as a family-owned Australian-made business.”

As a result, Watts said that the brand will now no longer be known as “Ugg Since 1974” outside of Australia and New Zealand. Instead, it will be called “Since 74” throughout the rest of the world.

Watts noted that the name Since 74 is an “ode to our heritage, handcrafting the world’s most bespoke Australian made sheepskin boots for 50 years” and doesn’t change anything about the product going forward.

FN has reached out to Deckers Brands for comment.

The TikTok, which was posted on Monday to the social media platform, has over 500,000 likes at the time of publication of this story.

Ugg Since 1974 first revealed this name change back in August with a blog post on the company’s website. In a post dated Aug. 20, the company said that “in order to avoid legal issues surrounding the Ugg trademark abroad, we label our products leaving Australia or New Zealand with our Since 74 logo.”

“So, whilst you’ll be receiving the exact same product, made in the exact same workshop, with the exact same sheepskin and by the exact same craftspeople – if you live outside Australia or New Zealand, your product will be labelled Since 74,” the post said.

This news comes after an online debate surfaced on TikTok in late 2023 as users aimed to find “the real Ugg.” At the time, there were countless videos by users comparing their Uggs from the 2010s to newer purchases they’ve made in more recent years. Some creators have called out changes in quality and differences in design details over the years.

But while the changes in design from the 2010s through today are minimal, the main difference that confused some consumers is the logo change for the boot maker, owned by Goleta, Calif.-based Deckers Brands. This led some creators on TikTok to speculate that the updated Uggs of today, which have dropped the word “Australia” from the logo, are allegedly “fake” and that the “real” Uggs are sold by an Australian company named Ugg Since 1974.

Amid the 2023 confusion, Ugg Since 1974 company issued its own explainer on its e-commerce site. In a post, the Australian company explored the differences between “Ugg” (owned by Deckers Brands) and “Ugg Since 1974.”

“Here at Ugg Since 1974, we’re often asked whether we are the same company as Ugg,” the Australian company’s post stated. “The answer is a resounding no (we are not related to Ugg in any way), but for those who aren’t across the Ugg story, it’s an easy mistake to make. We do not currently, nor have we ever, had an affiliation or relationship with Ugg.”

The word “ugg” is commonly used in Australia as a catchall term for sheepskin boots lined with fleece. However, in the U.S., Australian entrepreneur Brian Smith registered the name as a brand in the 1980s, with court documents revealing that Deckers bought the name from Smith and trademarked “Ugg Australia” in 1995.