UGG: Brian Smith. How an epiphany, surfers, and $500 launched an iconic sheepskin footwear company.

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.7 • 31.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2026

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1978, Brian Smith quit his accounting job in Australia and headed to California with a surfboard, some savings, and ambition. He figured California was where he’d find an idea or a product to bring back home to Australia to build a business. A year in, he was still looking.

But then he saw an advertisement in a surfing magazine for Australian sheepskin boots. Uggs were so widespread in Australia at the time, the name was a generic term - like flip flops - not a brand. Brian was immediately stoked: these boots were virtually unknown in America. If he could get ugg boots for sale in the U.S., they would be a huge success! Almost nobody else agreed.

For years, Brian lived on the edge of collapse. He sold boots from the back of his van and worked construction and golf course maintenance jobs to survive. Retailers laughed him out of stores. He lost control of his company twice. At one point, he literally crawled across the floor from stress, ready to walk away forever.

And yet…he kept going.

What followed was one of the most unlikely brand-building stories in modern retail history — involving surf culture, trademark wars, miraculous timing, brutal financing mistakes, and a product the fashion world initially dismissed.

Today, UGG generates more than $2.5 billion a year in sales.

You’ll hear how Brian:

Turned rejection into problems to solve
Discovered marketing insights that changed UGG forever
Survived years of cash-flow disasters
Lost control of the company and regained it a couple of times.
Used surf culture to build an emotional connection with customers
Nearly quit… over and over again…
And how he eventually sold UGG to footwear giant, Decker

Timestamps:

09:51 Brian's eureka moment that led to the birth of UGG
12:41 The first sales trip results in ZERO sales
21:10 The mantra that kept Brian going while doing odd summer jobs to survive
28:32 Brian gets a critical lesson in marketing…from some 12-year-old kids
51:59 Brian’s most effective strategy for retail: the “Six-Pair Stocking Plan”
56:42 On track to regain his ownership - Brian hits a huge snag
01:01:57 A midnight phone call from Australia saves the business
01:11:28 Brian gets the last laugh in the trademark dispute - and acquires a boot factory
01:14:54 Pamela Anderson wears UGGs on the set of Baywatch
01:23:39 A chance meeting in the Atlanta airport leads to a deal to sell UGG

This episode was researched and produced by Casey Herman, with music by Ramtin Arablouei, and edited by Andrea Bruce.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Starting something new isn't just hard. It's terrifying. Trust me, I know. When I started this podcast, I wasn't even sure anyone would listen to it. And now I know that I was right to believe in it and the stories that we shared despite all the fears and hesitations. But if you're starting a business, it also helps when you have a partner like Shopify on your side to help.
0:22.9	Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand style.
0:29.3	And then, of course, there's that iconic purple shop pay button that's used by millions of
0:34.8	businesses around the world. It's why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet,
0:40.9	meaning less carts going abandoned and more sales for you.
0:45.2	It's time to turn those what-ifs into with Shopify today.
0:50.7	Sign up for your one pound per month trial today at Shopify.co.uk slash built. Go to
0:57.5	Shopify.com.com.ukest built. That's Shopify.com.ukest built. I could see it coming so clearly.
1:18.9	In fact, the pre-season orders looked like the company was going to be destined for, you know,
1:25.5	$18 million, maybe even $20 million.
1:29.0	But I knew I would not be able to finance an extra $5, $6, $7 million in product.
1:34.8	And most people would be so excited about that.
1:38.1	I saw this as a kiss of death.
1:55.1	Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.
2:08.0	I'm Guy Raz, and on the show today, how Brian Smith brought Australian sheepskin boots to America that turned Ugs into a multi-billion-dollar brand.
2:23.8	In 1979, a 32-year-old Australian named Brian Smith decided to import boots from Australia and sell them in the U.S.
2:30.6	At the time, Brian was living in Southern California, and the boots he was importing were made from wool and sheepskin.
2:38.1	In Australia, everyone called them Ugs because they were ugly, not because it was a brand name.
2:48.2	Lots of small factories made their own versions of these same Ugg boots. But when Brian tried to sell them in the U.S., he could barely move inventory.
2:52.6	It would take more than a decade before he'd find any traction with consumers. He made mistake after mistake. He ran out of cash. He lost control of the company,
2:59.0	then got it back, then nearly lost it again. And finally, in 1995, Brian managed to sell
3:05.7	Ugg to the footwear brand Deckers for a modest price.
	...

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