Deckers Outdoor Corporation
Encyclopedia
Deckers Outdoor Corporation is a footwear
manufacturer based in Goleta, California
, United States
. It began in 1973 as a sandal producer, run by Doug Otto. Deckers currently manufactures six brands, Teva, UGG Australia
, Simple Shoes, Sanuk
, Tsubo, Ahnu and Mozo.
Mark Thatcher was the inventor of Teva ' onMouseout='HidePop("4374")' href="/topics/Nature">nature
"). While working as a rafting
guide in 1982 he noticed the lack of proper shoes for river activities. Sneakers would become heavy when wet and would take days to dry and thongs would slide off feet very easily.
Thatcher fashioned a thong-style sandal with nylon
ankle strapping, thus creating the first sport sandal. Thatcher patented his invention, found a manufacturer and began selling the "amphibious utility sandals" by himself, selling 200 pairs the first year. Although it was effective watersports footwear, it proved less effective for regular sports as the first Teva users often complained of blisters between the first and second toe caused by the thong-style strapping system. However, the following year a sudden high demand of Teva sandals arose as young Americans found the sandal highly fashionable.
A partnership was established between Thatcher and Deckers Outdoor Corp. Deckers eventually got exclusive rights to Teva including patent #4,793,075 for the basic design and a trademark for the brand name. The sandal was redesigned, creating the Universal Strapping System. The first model was called "Hurricane" and is the basis of all Teva sandals.
On November 25, 2002, Deckers acquired the worldwide Teva patents, trademarks and other assets from Mark Thatcher. After this transfer, Teva continued to grow under the supervision of the Deckers Outdoor Corporation.
The basic model consists of a 2-layer sole: The inner sole is softer and serves as the footbed, most of the models come with arch support and Microban Zinc, a technology that prevents odor and kills bacteria.
The outer sole is harder and is formulated to have a good grip on wet surfaces.
The Universal strapping system consists of 3 parts:
Each strap is connected to the others by triangular "rings" where each strap goes around one side of the ring.
brand is known for its ugg boots
, a sheepskin upper with a wool inner lining and a tanned
outer surface worn by men and women. Surfing which helped popularise the boots outside of Australia and New Zealand, when surfer Brian Smith started selling the boots in the US through Ugg Holdings, Inc. in 1979. Uggs have been identified as a fashion trend since the early 2000s in the United States, with celebrities such as Kate Hudson
, Sarah Jessica Parker
and Pamela Anderson
wearing them. Pamela Anderson renounced ugg boots in 2007 upon realising that they were made from animal skin.
, where it is known for a trademark dispute over the use of the term Ugg boot.
In 1971, Australian surfer Shane Steadman, began selling ugg boots and registered the name Ugh-boots as a trademark in Australia. In 1979 Brian Smith, another Australian surfer, brought several pairs of Australian-made sheepskin boots
to the US and began selling them in New York and California. He set up Ugg Holdings Inc., acquired the Australian mark from Steadman, and in 1985 registered a US trademark on a rams head logo with the words "Original UGG Boot UGG Australia. In 1995, he sold his interest to Deckers Outdoor Corporation. In 1996 Deckers registered a trademark for "UGG" in the US. In 1999, Deckers began asserting its new trademark and sent cease and desist
letters to Australian manufacturers, but did not press the issue beyond that. It was only in the early 2000s when demand for ugg boots was soaring, partly as a result of several celebrity endorsements, and Australian manufacturers began selling uggs over the Internet, that Deckers' law firm Middletons of Melbourne began a serious effort to halt their sales. In 2004, Deckers sent cease and desist letters to 20 Australian manufacturers and Mortels Sheepskin Factory was prevented from selling uggs on eBay
or from using the word in domain name
s.
In response to these actions by Deckers, Australian manufacturers formed the Ugg Boot Footwear Association to fight the corporation's claim, arguing that "ugg" is a generic term referring to flat-heeled, pull-on sheepskin boots. They further argued that Australian manufacturers had been making and trading this style of boot for decades, including in the US. In 2003 Bruce and Bronwyn McDougall, owners of Uggs-N-Rugs
, a Western Australia
-based manufacturer, started legal action alleging that Deckers had not actively used the UGH-BOOT registration in Australian commerce for the past three years. Their action was successful in 2006, and the UGH-BOOT registration was removed from the Australian Trademark Registry. The officer who heard the case stated that the "evidence overwhelmingly supports the proposition that the terms (ugg, ugh and ug boots) are interchangeably used to describe a specific style of sheepskin boot and are the first and most natural way in which to describe these goods."
The ruling only applies in Australia with Deckers still owning the trademarks in all other jurisdictions, including the US, China
, Japan
and the European Union
. In 2005, the validity of the UGG trademark was challenged in Federal Court in California; the court ruled for Deckers, stating that consumers in the United States consider Ugg to be a brand name. In his final order, the judge hearing the case stated that, although the defendants had provided anecdotal evidence of the term being used generically, Deckers had countered this by "submitted ... declarations from four footwear industry professionals, each of whom states that 'UGG' is widely recognized in the industry as a brand-name and not a generic term" and that the defendants' evidence "fails to demonstrate that the term 'UGG' is generic." In his finding the judge did not consider whether or not "ugg" was a generic term in Australia or New Zealand, as the doctrine of foreign equivalents
only relates to non-English speaking countries. A similar challenge was also rejected by a Dutch
court.
. According to the Glasgow Evening Times in July 2010,
In 2009, US customs agents confiscated 60,000 pairs of fake UGG boots, and the company took action against 2500 websites that were selling fraudulent products, as well as some 170,000 listings on eBay
, Craigslist
and similar sites. Leah Evert-Burks, director of brand protection for Deckers, told The New York Times
: "The consumer is blind as to the source of the product ... Counterfeit Web sites go up pretty easily, and counterfeiters will copy our stock photos, the text of our Web site, so it will look and feel like" the Deckers website.
brand which was originally founded by Eric Meyer, a native of Morro Bay, CA. Simple Shoes is known for its use of "green" sustainable materials such as bamboo
, jute
, hemp
, recycled PETE
, used tires and cork
. Simple Shoes also offers vegan (free of any animal products) footwear.
Footwear
Footwear consists of garments worn on the feet, for fashion, protection against the environment, and adornment. Being barefoot is commonly associated with poverty, but some cultures chose not to wear footwear at least in some situations....
manufacturer based in Goleta, California
Goleta, California
Goleta is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, USA. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated, populated area in the county. As of the 2000 census, the Census-designated place had a total population of 55,204, however, a significant...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It began in 1973 as a sandal producer, run by Doug Otto. Deckers currently manufactures six brands, Teva, UGG Australia
Ugg Australia
UGG Australia is an American footwear company and is a division of the Deckers Outdoor Corporation, Goleta, California.UGG Australia footwear is manufactured in China....
, Simple Shoes, Sanuk
Sanuk
Sanuk, a division of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, is a footwear brand based in Southern California. Specializes in manufacturing professional racing footwear for racers, comfortability and complacent are the key to success in winning a competition...
, Tsubo, Ahnu and Mozo.
Teva
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
"). While working as a rafting
Rafting
Rafting or white water rafting is a challenging recreational outdoor activity using an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other bodies of water. This is usually done on white water or different degrees of rough water, in order to thrill and excite the raft passengers. The development of this...
guide in 1982 he noticed the lack of proper shoes for river activities. Sneakers would become heavy when wet and would take days to dry and thongs would slide off feet very easily.
Thatcher fashioned a thong-style sandal with nylon
Nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides, first produced on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station...
ankle strapping, thus creating the first sport sandal. Thatcher patented his invention, found a manufacturer and began selling the "amphibious utility sandals" by himself, selling 200 pairs the first year. Although it was effective watersports footwear, it proved less effective for regular sports as the first Teva users often complained of blisters between the first and second toe caused by the thong-style strapping system. However, the following year a sudden high demand of Teva sandals arose as young Americans found the sandal highly fashionable.
A partnership was established between Thatcher and Deckers Outdoor Corp. Deckers eventually got exclusive rights to Teva including patent #4,793,075 for the basic design and a trademark for the brand name. The sandal was redesigned, creating the Universal Strapping System. The first model was called "Hurricane" and is the basis of all Teva sandals.
On November 25, 2002, Deckers acquired the worldwide Teva patents, trademarks and other assets from Mark Thatcher. After this transfer, Teva continued to grow under the supervision of the Deckers Outdoor Corporation.
Construction
The outer sole is harder and is formulated to have a good grip on wet surfaces.
The Universal strapping system consists of 3 parts:
- The toe post: a strap that goes on the frontal part of the sandal, across the toes and in between the inner and outer sole.
- The heel strap: Goes around the ankle to prevent the sandal from sliding off.
- The side strap: Connects the toes post and the heel strap on the outer side of the sandal, this prevents the sandal from stretching in awkward positions where injury could occur.
Each strap is connected to the others by triangular "rings" where each strap goes around one side of the ring.
UGG Australia
The UGG AustraliaUgg Australia
UGG Australia is an American footwear company and is a division of the Deckers Outdoor Corporation, Goleta, California.UGG Australia footwear is manufactured in China....
brand is known for its ugg boots
Ugg boots
Ugg boots are a unisex style of sheepskin boots, made of twin-faced sheepskin with fleece on the inside and with a tanned outer surface, often with a synthetic sole....
, a sheepskin upper with a wool inner lining and a tanned
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
outer surface worn by men and women. Surfing which helped popularise the boots outside of Australia and New Zealand, when surfer Brian Smith started selling the boots in the US through Ugg Holdings, Inc. in 1979. Uggs have been identified as a fashion trend since the early 2000s in the United States, with celebrities such as Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10...
, Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
and Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson
Pamela Denise Anderson is a Canadian-American actress, model, producer, author, activist, and former showgirl, known for her roles on the television series Home Improvement, Baywatch, and V.I.P. She was chosen as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy magazine in February 1990...
wearing them. Pamela Anderson renounced ugg boots in 2007 upon realising that they were made from animal skin.
Trademark Dispute
UGG Australia is a registered trademark in the US, Europe and many other countries. There have been various disputes within Australia, the United States and Europe about the validity of Ugh/ugg trademark. Deckers trades as Ugg Holdings Inc in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, where it is known for a trademark dispute over the use of the term Ugg boot.
In 1971, Australian surfer Shane Steadman, began selling ugg boots and registered the name Ugh-boots as a trademark in Australia. In 1979 Brian Smith, another Australian surfer, brought several pairs of Australian-made sheepskin boots
Sheepskin boots
Sheepskin boots are boots made from sheepskin. The wool on sheepskin has good insulating properties and so such boots are commonly worn when it is cold....
to the US and began selling them in New York and California. He set up Ugg Holdings Inc., acquired the Australian mark from Steadman, and in 1985 registered a US trademark on a rams head logo with the words "Original UGG Boot UGG Australia. In 1995, he sold his interest to Deckers Outdoor Corporation. In 1996 Deckers registered a trademark for "UGG" in the US. In 1999, Deckers began asserting its new trademark and sent cease and desist
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
letters to Australian manufacturers, but did not press the issue beyond that. It was only in the early 2000s when demand for ugg boots was soaring, partly as a result of several celebrity endorsements, and Australian manufacturers began selling uggs over the Internet, that Deckers' law firm Middletons of Melbourne began a serious effort to halt their sales. In 2004, Deckers sent cease and desist letters to 20 Australian manufacturers and Mortels Sheepskin Factory was prevented from selling uggs on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
or from using the word in domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
s.
In response to these actions by Deckers, Australian manufacturers formed the Ugg Boot Footwear Association to fight the corporation's claim, arguing that "ugg" is a generic term referring to flat-heeled, pull-on sheepskin boots. They further argued that Australian manufacturers had been making and trading this style of boot for decades, including in the US. In 2003 Bruce and Bronwyn McDougall, owners of Uggs-N-Rugs
Uggs-N-Rugs
Uggs-N-Rugs is a small business in Perth, Western Australia, manufacturing and retailing ugg boots. In 2006 Uggs-N-Rugs successfully challenged the registration of ugg/ug/ugh as a trade mark in Australia and continues to challenge the trademark registration through the Australian Sheepskin...
, a Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
-based manufacturer, started legal action alleging that Deckers had not actively used the UGH-BOOT registration in Australian commerce for the past three years. Their action was successful in 2006, and the UGH-BOOT registration was removed from the Australian Trademark Registry. The officer who heard the case stated that the "evidence overwhelmingly supports the proposition that the terms (ugg, ugh and ug boots) are interchangeably used to describe a specific style of sheepskin boot and are the first and most natural way in which to describe these goods."
The ruling only applies in Australia with Deckers still owning the trademarks in all other jurisdictions, including the US, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. In 2005, the validity of the UGG trademark was challenged in Federal Court in California; the court ruled for Deckers, stating that consumers in the United States consider Ugg to be a brand name. In his final order, the judge hearing the case stated that, although the defendants had provided anecdotal evidence of the term being used generically, Deckers had countered this by "submitted ... declarations from four footwear industry professionals, each of whom states that 'UGG' is widely recognized in the industry as a brand-name and not a generic term" and that the defendants' evidence "fails to demonstrate that the term 'UGG' is generic." In his finding the judge did not consider whether or not "ugg" was a generic term in Australia or New Zealand, as the doctrine of foreign equivalents
Doctrine of foreign equivalents
The doctrine of foreign equivalents is a rule applied in United States trademark law which requires courts and the TTAB to translate foreign words in determining whether they are registrable as trademarks, or confusingly similar with existing marks...
only relates to non-English speaking countries. A similar challenge was also rejected by a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
court.
Counterfeit products
Deckers has also been challenged by the marketing of counterfeit products, principally from ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. According to the Glasgow Evening Times in July 2010,
Gangs of criminals have flooded Glasgow with fake footwear. ... Authorities across the west of ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
have seized hundreds of pairs of the must-have footwear ... Neil Coltart, at Glasgow City Council, said: "These boots come in boxes that look like the real thing, with tags and labels. But the product clearly isn't the quality you'd expecty from Ugg." ... Out of their slick packaging, the boots were clearly not made of Ugg's comfy sheepskin, but a cheap man-made fur. One even had its distinctive Ugg trademark glued on to its heel upside down. Holding up a pair, [Coltart] said: "I think most people would be pretty disappointed if they bought Ugg boots and brought these home."
In 2009, US customs agents confiscated 60,000 pairs of fake UGG boots, and the company took action against 2500 websites that were selling fraudulent products, as well as some 170,000 listings on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, Craigslist
Craigslist
Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities featuring free online classified advertisements, with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums....
and similar sites. Leah Evert-Burks, director of brand protection for Deckers, told The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
: "The consumer is blind as to the source of the product ... Counterfeit Web sites go up pretty easily, and counterfeiters will copy our stock photos, the text of our Web site, so it will look and feel like" the Deckers website.
Simple Shoes
Simple Shoes, also known as Simple, is an American footwearFootwear
Footwear consists of garments worn on the feet, for fashion, protection against the environment, and adornment. Being barefoot is commonly associated with poverty, but some cultures chose not to wear footwear at least in some situations....
brand which was originally founded by Eric Meyer, a native of Morro Bay, CA. Simple Shoes is known for its use of "green" sustainable materials such as bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
, jute
Jute
Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which has been classified in the family Tiliaceae, or more recently in Malvaceae....
, hemp
Hemp
Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel with modest...
, recycled PETE
Pete
Pete is a diminutive from Peter. It may refer to:-Athletics:* The Pete, Petersen Events Center, athletics complex and basketball arena on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh* Pete the Penguin, mascot of Youngstown State University...
, used tires and cork
Cork (material)
Cork is an impermeable, buoyant material, a prime-subset of bark tissue that is harvested for commercial use primarily from Quercus suber , which is endemic to southwest Europe and northwest Africa...
. Simple Shoes also offers vegan (free of any animal products) footwear.