Here's Why All the Cool Girls are Wearing UGGs Again

It's taken some years to come back around, but we’ve got news for you. The UGG boot is back, and it's back in a BIG way, after being spotted on every it-girl under the sun. Kendall Jenner? Yeah, she’s got a pair. Bella Hadid? Rocking them. Emily Ratajkowski? You bet. The return of the fluffy boot is upon us, and actually, we’re not mad about it. But why has the UGG made a return, and is it here to stay? Here’s what we think.

A far cry from the cool girls of London, New York and LA, the UGG boot was originally designed with Surfers in mind. The UGG brand was founded by an Aussie on the California coast in 1978, and by the mid-80s was a surf shop staple, because, who apart from surfers would need UGGs in the California heat?

At the same time, UGGs were becoming popular with the apres-ski crowd, making a fairly natural transition from surfboards to snow. Both groups had enough fashion influence on the general population, and UGGs started to gain favour with the general population, and the demand for UGG boots surpassed the surf shops and moved onto the malls.

In 1994, the cosy silhouette found fame on the feet of Pamela Anderson, who paired the boot with her iconic red Baywatch swimsuit. One of the biggest stars of the decade, the photo turned UGG into a national brand within the US, and the brand was sold to Deckers. The agency behind Deckers began shipping the UGG boot out to movie sets, in the hope that stars would wear them between takes. Its next big break came from an Oprah endorsement in 2000 when the boot was featured on her Christmas Shopping segment.

From that point onward, the UGG had become a household name and was worn by everyone. It featured heavily on the feet of Blake Lively and Leighton Meister in Gossip Girl, Sarah Jessica Parker in SATC, and of course was worn very differently by Paris Hilton and co. In 2003, the brand brought out baby pink and baby blue versions of the boot, which became the perfect accompaniment to the velour Juicy Couture tracksuits that had also become popular at the time. UGG mania continued until the supply caught up with the demand, and a number of counterfeit brands began to jeopardise the position of the boot as a status symbol. Come 2009, the brand wanted to prolong its longevity, and although it fell out of the media spotlight, its pivot to a lifestyle essential pleased its diehard fans, keeping it slowly ticking away in the background.

Fact is, UGG gives its customers a little taste of luxury at a relatively affordable price point, and stepping into a pair, whether that be at the start of a coffee run or at the end of the day at home, also allows its wearer to associate the boot with feelings of home, security and comfort. And perhaps those feelings are just a couple of reasons why the UGG boot has found its feet again over the past couple of years. With many of us dressing for comfort since 2020’s lockdowns and grasping for anything that can give us some sense of stability or even nostalgia for much simpler times, it's only natural that our clothing choices reflect this. But is this alone enough to resurrect the UGG boot from its place deep down in the back of our closets? Or are there other factors at play?

We’ve already seen that Y2K is back, and UGGs were one of the defining shoes of the era. Thanks to its celebrity endorsements and appearances in pop culture, we’re unlikely to see another shoe define an entire decade as well as the UGG did. Although Y2K fashion has been big this year and is expected to carry on into 2023, the UGG resurgence so far is less Juicy Couture and more athleisure, but could this mean the return of the baby blue and pink boots is in sight?

Another footwear trend we’d already predicted to take off in 2022 was a focus on texture. Included in the texture trend is a whole lot of sheepskin, and we’ve already seen the fabric adorn bags by Bottega Veneta and Louis V. Of course, the humble UGG is perfectly equipped to take on this trend, and it provides us with a much more toned-down way of wearing them vs the Y2K vibes.

As mentioned, the UGG has been seen on everyone who's anyone this year. From Supermodels like Irina Shayk to influencers like Miss Joslin, the UGG has the cool girl well and truly floored. Since their foray into mainstream fashion, UGG has always benefitted from celebrity endorsements, and it seems like influencers are of equal importance in their strategy too.

That being said, the UGG boot also seems to be a firm-favourite of the fashion elite. Andre Leon Talley, former Creative Director and Editor-at-Large at Vogue, continuously professed his fondness for the brand and ended up appearing as the face of a campaign at the start of 2021.

In January 2022, UGG also tapped Cher as the face of the brand, saying “Like UGG, Cher is unlike any other.” Searches for 'UGG boots' spiked by 1280% in the hours following the Cher announcement, in which she wore black UGG Classic Mini II Boots in the accompanying imagery. With UGG flooding the market from all of these angles, the brand is pretty hard to avoid right now.

Aside from its incredible celebrity endorsement strategy, UGG has also made the most of being able to capitalise on the collaboration wave. The brand has masterminded a number of fashion-forward collabs, including collections with Feng Chen Wang, Y Project and (interestingly, given the practicalities of the boot) Gore-Tex and White Mountaineering. Some of these collaborations even found their feet on the fashion week circuit, thanks to the talents of Molly Goddard and Eckhaus Latta, and the high-fashion element allows the brand to retain the exclusivity element, protecting them from their previous downfall.

One of UGG's most successful collaborations was with American brand Telfar, known for the hugely coveted sell-out shopper bags. The collab saw UGG team up with designer Telfar Clemens for a hugely Instagrammable collection of boots, hats and bags, once again taking the internet by storm. The collab spiked search interest by 94% in 24 hours.

The UGG today may look a little different to how you remembered it. The style doing the rounds right now is more subtle than UGG boots past. Sleeker and more discreet than its taller companions, the UGG Ultra Mini is cut at the ankle, so it flatters any leg length, and it could pass for a slipper as well as a boot. The Ultra Mini even comes in a platform version too, and a week after Bella Hadid was papped in a pair, The Sole Supplier saw UGG site traffic triple. A week later, it had increased 6.7x - going from 2557 sessions to 17,000. At the time of writing, the numbers are still continuing to climb.

Whether this new-found style-hybrid is a new magic formula for making the UGG much more wearable and preserving longevity is yet to be seen. However, from September to October, searches for UGG on The Sole Supplier increased 16x over, and site traffic increased 6x. As pairs were selling out left, right and centre, UGG’s customer base were desperate to get hold of any restocks, and the amount of people setting release reminders on UGG products went up 10.5x.

One thing is for sure though. The UGG revival has come along at the perfect time. The trend can feel updated, but it ultimately still brings back the same feelings and associations as we had with our previous pairs of UGGs, and also gives us the comfort we crave in the times after we’ve been affected by lockdowns. Of course, the UGG will never be for everyone, but the girls that get it, get it.