UGG Boots - Who Really Designed The Famous Brand

 UGG Boots

A pair of Ugg boots (sometimes called Uggs) is known in Australia and New Zealand as a unisex style of sheepskin boot made of twin-faced sheepskin with fleece on the inside and with a tanned outer surface, often with a synthetic sole. The boots originated in those countries, initially as utilitarian footwear worn for warmth and comfort and later adopted by surfers there during the 1960s. In the 1970s, the boots were introduced to the surf culture of the United Kingdom and the United States by local surfers returning from surfing competitions in Australia. Ugg boots emerged as a fashion trend in the United States in the late 1990s and as a world-wide trend in the mid-2000s, yet in Australia they are worn predominantly as slippers and associated with "daggy" fashion sense, and "bogan" culture.

There has been a dispute between some manufacturers of Ugg boots, as to whether "Ugg" is a protected trademark, or a generic term and thus ineligible for trademark protection. In Australia and New Zealand, where the term is considered generic, more than 70 registered trademarks include the term UGG in various logos and designs. By contrast, UGG is a registered trademark of the California-based Deckers Outdoor Corporation in over 140 countries worldwide including the U.S. and China.

 The origins of the ugg boot style and the term "ugg" are disputed, with both Australia and New Zealand claiming to have invented the footwear style. Sheepskin boots were known in rural Australia during the 1920s, but exactly when commercial manufacturing began is unclear. They were reportedly being manufactured in 1933 by Blue Mountains Ugg Boots of New South Wales. Frank Mortel of Mortels Sheepskin Factory has stated that he began manufacturing the boots in the late 1950s, and named his company's sheepskin boots "Ugg boots" in 1958 after his wife commented that the first pair he made were "ugly."

Lifelong surfer Shane Stedman of Australia has stated in interviews that he invented the Ugg boot in 1971. Stedman registered the trademark "UGH-BOOTS" in Australia in 1971, and in 1982 registered a logo containing a stylised Sun with the words "UGG AUSTRALIA". Perth sheepskin boot manufacturers Bruce and Bronwyn McDougall of Uggs and Rugs have manufactured the boots since the late 1970s.

The terms Ugg boots, Ugh boots and Ug boots are believed to have been used to describe sheepskin boots in Australia and New Zealand since the late 1950s. Some accounts have suggested that the term grew out of earlier variations, such as the "fug boots" worn by pilots during World War I. The 1970s saw the emergence of advertising using the terms, and the Macquarie Dictionary of the Australian language first included a definition for "Ugg boot" as a generic term for sheepskin boots in its 1981 edition. (After Stedman complained to the editors of Macquarie, a trademark notation was added to subsequent editions indicating that "UGH" was a trade mark).

In the 1960s, ugg boots became a popular option for competitive surfers, who used the boots to keep their feet warm after exiting from the surf. After movie theatres in Sydney banned Ugg boots and ripped jeans, the footwear became somewhat popular in the youth market as a sign of rebellion. Sheepskin footwear accounts for around 10% of footwear production in Australia.

Dr John Bradfield - Sydney Harbour Bridge Designer

Dr John Bradfield - Sydney Harbour Bridge Designer

 

In the years before World War I, Bradfield himself submitted several proposals for a bridge across the harbour. In 1912 he proposed a suspension bridge. And in 1913, just one year the outbreak of WWI, the parliamentary committee responsible for recommending a bridge design finally chose Bradfield's design for a cantilever bridge, similar to the earlier cantilever design featured in Image 3. If it had not been for the outbreak of WWI in 1914, it is more than likely that this design would have been given the go-ahead. However, after the war when the bridge building plans were renewed, the cantilever design was eventually abandoned in favour of an arch bridge.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge was not originally thought of as an arch bridge. Dr Bradfield initially had a cantilever bridge in mind to span the harbour. However, on a trip to New York he was inspired by the Hell Gate Bridge and he realised the cantilever design was inferior to an arch for his proposed bridge.

‘Sydney Harbour Bridge: perspective elevation’ by Robert Charles Given Coulter, architect, Department of Public Works, 1921. Photograph on paper and linen, overdrawn with ink and wash, 57 x 196 Cm. State Records NSW. In Bridging Sydney, A cantilever bridge functions quite differently from an arch bridge. Being a beam bridge, a cantilever relies on the supports to provide only vertical reactions to vertical loads. The bridge transmits these loads to the supports and the supports react with vertical reactions. In an arch bridge, vertical loads create horizontal and vertical reactions because the loads try to flatten the arch and push out against the abutments. This means that an arch must have significantly stronger abutments than a beam bridge.

Comparison of reaction forces at supports on cantilever and arch bridges. Dr Bradfield ‘… had come to the conclusion that there were no insuperable difficulties to the erection of an arch bridge of the span required, and that an arch bridge would cost £350 000 less than a cantilever.

For Dr Bradfield the arch was the better system. It was a more efficient structure, which meant it would carry the same load as the cantilever but require less steel.

Sydney Harbour Bridge is not the longest span steel arch bridge in the world, but it is the widest and heaviest.

Lance Hill Rotary Clothesline Designer

Lance Hill - Rotary Clothesline Designer

 

The Hills Hoist was developed in a backyard in Glenunga, Adelaide, by Lance Hill in 1945. It is a rotary clothesline that can be raised and lowered by a winding mechanism. This feature, in addition to the rotating square frame, allows the washing to dry more effectively in the breeze. The Hills Hoist also makes the most of limited space in suburban backyards.

Hill's original clotheslines were made from scrap metal. By 1946 the clothesline had proven to be a huge hit with friends and family, so Hill and his brother-in-law, Harold Ling, established a business, Hills, to keep up with the demand. They purchased surplus army trucks to make deliveries and a plant to manufacture the metal tubing from which the frame of the clothesline is made. By 1948 Hills had expanded its operation to include the manufacture of other laundry products. In 1959 the company offered a hoist as a gift to the Queen and Queen Mother, but Australia's Governor-General, Field Marshal Sir William Joseph Slim, did not think the offer suitable to pass on to the Palace.

 

Hills Industries celebrated the sale of the five millionth Hills Hoist in 1994 and now exports the clothes line around the world. The Hills Hoist has become an Australian cultural icon and was featured as the emblem of the 1996 Adelaide Festival of Arts and in the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.

 

Even though the Hills Hoist was the most successful, it was not the first rotary clothes hoist to be produced. Gilbert Toyne had patented four significant designs for rotary clothes hoists between 1911 and 1946. In fact Toyne was living and manufacturing his rotary clothes hoists several streets away from Lance Hill's Glenunga home in 1926. By the 1930s the Toyne rotary clothes hoist was available for purchase across Australia and New Zealand, with manufacturing bases established in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. For further information about Gilbert Toyne and his business see further reading below.