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The roots of the UGG Sundance II bootsstyle are problematic, with both Australia and New Zealand claiming to have been the beginning of the footwear. However, it seems that “fug boots” (surmised to be a shortened type of “flying ugg boots”) were used by aviators during World War I, and that they were showed in rural parts of Australia in the course of the 1920s.While it is not obvious when production started, by 1933, ugg boots were being produced by Blue Mountains Ugg Boots, and Mortels Sheepskin Factory were making the boots from the late 1950s.

In regard to naming, it appears that UGG Ultra Short boots, ugh boots and ug boots have been used as generic terms for sheepskin boots in Australia and New Zealand since at least the 1970s, although individual accounts have suggested that the terms (or variations thereof) were employed earlier. The 1970s saw the emergence of advertising using the names, but Brian Smith, (who founded Ugg Holdings Inc), has stated that the boots were referred to as “uggs” long before the word was trademarked, and Frank Mortel claims to have been making ugg boots under the “ugg” name since 1958.

In the 1960s, UGG Knightsbridge boots started to be a popular choice for competing surfers, who used the boots to maintain their feet warm after exiting from the surf. It was surfing which aided popularise the boots outside of Australia and New Zealand, when surfer Brian Smith started marketing the boots in the United States through the company Ugg Holdings, Inc. in 1979. After Ugg Holdings Inc. was marketed to Deckers Outdoor Corporation in 1995, ugg boots emerged as a style trend in the United States through Deckers’ marketing of their brand, with celebs including Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker and Pamela Anderson wearing the boots, (although Anderson renounced ugg boots in 2007 upon realising that they were made from animal skin). Deckers’ actions to market their merchandise “led to an rapid development in the brand’s reputation and recognizability.” Deckers has described sales of US$689 million under the UGG brand in 2008, an improve from US$14.5 million in 1995.